Maputo, Mozambique — Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi Friday called for the "responsible exploitation" of marine resources available in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for the benefit of all member countries.
Mocumbi was speaking at the opening of the ninth meeting of SADC Fisheries Ministers being held in Maputo.
The member countries, he said, should play special attention to such issues as the harmonisation of policies and monitoring systems regarding the resources.
Although he acknowledged that the heterogeneous nature of the geographical location and specificity of each member country is one of the main difficulties for attaining common goals, Mocumbi said he believed that jointly the region could establish appropriate conditions for creating economies of scale.
Such economies have to be "based on a great regional economy that we must create and consolidate," he said.
Such economies of scale, he added, would promote increased productivity, stimulate cross-border trade and mobilise regional and international investment.
In redefining their priorities, SADC member countries should be aware of their institutional fragility, shortage of financial means and scarcity of technical resources, Mocumbi stressed.
"The regional fishing sector plays an important role for the national economies of the member states and for the region as a whole," the Prime Minister said, expressing optimism at the sector's development prospects.
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Mocumbi was followed by Namibian Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister, Abraham Iyambo, who in his role as the chairman of the SADC fisheries sector Ministerial Committee, said that fishing in the region is vital for the economies of some of the member states.
In 1999 regional production yielded 1.5 million tonnes of fish, he said.
According to Iyambo, the world's production netted 125 million tonnes in the same period, a growth of seven percent in comparison with the previous year. Of this figure, 31 million tonnes came from fish farming, an industry which is still in its infancy in SADC.
Among other matters under discussion at the one-day meeting is the draft SADC Fisheries Protocol.
Mozambican Fisheries Minister Cadmiel Muthemba said that the discussions surrounding the protocol will hinge on the issue of the harmonisation of the terminology used in the region - problems arise in the translation of the documents from English into Portuguese.
