3. Opening statements were delivered by the outgoing Chairman from Namibia, the Director of the SRDC-SA and the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development of the Government of the Republic of Zambia, Hon. Godfrey Simasiku.

4. The outgoing Chairperson, Ms. E. Shafudah, Acting Director of Development Planning at the National Planning Commission of the Government of the Republic of Namibia, welcomed participants to the meeting and thanked the Government of the Republic of Zambia and the people of Zambia for their hospitality and for hosting the Seventh ICE Meeting. She extended the appreciation of the Government of the Republic of Namibia to the ECA and the SRDC-SA for the tireless work and dedication in supporting the development agenda of countries in Southern Africa.

5. Ms. Shafudah observed that the SRDC-SA had made the necessary follow-up on the National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) development as reflected in national workshops organized in Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia, and noted the Centre's continued support to the activities of COMESA and SADC in areas such as transport and communications, gender, policy harmonization and integration. She also made reference to the outcome of the African Development Forum (ADF 2000), "The African Consensus and Plan of Action: Leadership to Overcome HIV/AIDS" and appealed for finding ways and means to enhance individual and collective efforts in reducing poverty and the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS which had become of great concern, especially in Southern African countries.

6. She appreciated the role played by the public sector, private sector and civil society in socio-economic development. In this regard, she was pleased that the Seventh ICE meeting was being organized in conjunction with a "Roundtable on Public Sector/Private Sector/Civil Society Partnership" as a Special Event.

7. Finally, Ms. Shafudah expressed concern about the recurrent flood disasters in Southern Africa, underlining the importance of strengthening existing early warning systems at the subregional and national levels, including more efficient ways of coping with the aftermath.

8. On behalf of Mr. K. Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Mr. Robert M. Okello, Director of the ECA/SRDC-SA, welcomed participants to the meeting. He thanked the Government and the people of the Republic of Zambia for accepting to host the Seventh ICE and the Special Event, noting that this was proof of the continued support by the Government of Zambia to the Centre, which it hosts.

9. The Director reminded the meeting of the Six Meeting of ICE in 2000, which was organized in conjunction with the Subregional Workshop on National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) development in Southern Africa. This year, the ICE was organized in conjunction with a Special Event - a Roundtable on Public Sector/Private Sector/Civil Society Partnership. Combining these two events seemed a natural development, given the necessary interaction between them and the key role they play in economic and social development.

10. Highlighting the socio-economic conditions in the Southern Africa in 2000, the Director observed that all the countries, except Zimbabwe, had registered positive economic growth rates with aggregate GDP growth at 3.3 per cent in the subregion in 2000 compared to 3.4 per cent in 1999. This was projected to grow at between 3.5 and 5 per cent in 2001.

11. He further observed that the launch of the Free Trade Area of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA-FTA), the signing of the Trade Protocol of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the establishment of COMESA Court of Justice, were significant milestones in buttressing regional cooperation and integration for social development in the sub-region during the period under review. These positive developments, he cautioned, could be undermined by continued daunting challenges such as HIV/AIDS pandemic, which threatened to stall, and even reverse, some of the gains the countries were making.

12. The Director then highlighted the agenda of the meeting, including the Programme of Work for the period 2002-2003, as well as appeals to member States to support the implementation of some of its aspects. The areas of support included group training activities. He, therefore, appealed to member States to consider making pledges to the United Nations Trust Fund for African Development (UNTFAD) during the Pledging Conference planned in May 2001 during the session of the ECA Conference of Ministers.

13. Mr. Okello appealed to participants to: actively discuss the various documents and enrich them; make suggestions and recommendations for improving the work of the Centre; and also make suggestions of policy nature that could be communicated to the ECA Conference of Ministers through the Technical Preparatory Committee of the Whole (TEPCOW) the following month.

14. The Hon. Godfrey Simasiku, M.P. and Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development in the Government of the Republic of Zambia, delivered the key opening statement. After welcoming all participants to Zambia, the Minister thanked the ECA for organizing these meetings, which provided opportunities to share ideas on key issues affecting socio-economic development and planning. He noted that such meetings contributed also to the formulation of common positions on key development issues. In this regard, he appealed to member States to support the activities of the ECA.

15. The Minister noted with appreciation ECA's support to the subregional organizations, especially SADC and COMESA, and called for further collaboration, coordination and support among the regional economic communities. Hon. Simasiku commended the ECA for follow-up on the National Information and Communications Infrastructure (NICI) development activities following the subregional workshop in Windhoek, Namibia in April 2000 and acknowledged ECA's assistance to Zambia in organizing the first national workshop for developing its national information and communications technology policy.

16. The Minister noted that all the agenda items were important to the development of Southern Africa and underlined the important role of the informal sector development, given the recent massive retrenchment from the public sector due to the reform programmes. He noted that Zambia was one of the four countries in Africa implementing an informal sector pilot project executed by the ECA with financial support from the GTZ of Germany.

17. Hon. Simasiku further welcomed the timely convening of the Special Event on Public Sector, Private Sector and Civil Society to enhance effective development in the subregion. The Minister also added his voice to the concern about the adverse effects of floods in a second consecutive year affecting people in the subregion, particularly in Malawi and Mozambique, and made an appeal for strengthening mechanisms for further preparedness and management of the aftermath of such disasters.

18. The Minister then declared the Seventh ICE Meeting officially open and wished participants fruitful deliberations.