SADC’s cooperating partners, business leaders, representatives of government, labour and private organisations, non-governmental organisations and the civil society will engage in open dialogue during the conference.

It has become tradition for SADC to hold consultative conferences (CCs) on themes that are critical to the organisation’s overall objective of achieving regional cooperation and integration. The theme for the 1996 CC held in South Africa was “Trade and Investment” while “Productivity: Key to Sustainable Development in SADC” was the focus of the 1997 CC which was held in Namibia.

After the Windhoek Consultative Conference, the Council of Ministers adopted a decision not to hold consultative conferences annually. As a result, there was no CC in 1998.

With few, often old and unstable telephone lines in many parts of SADC, and Africa in general, Internet services will remain a pipe dream for the populace for sometime to come.

However, the figures only show users in the sense of account holders, which can be shared by many more people. In that regard, the actual number of people with access to Internet services would therefore be much higher, but still lower than the world average which is one user for every 40 people. In North America and Europe, the average is about one in every four to six people.

International connections are often carried either via satellite or, in the case of South Africa for instance, via the marine optical fibre link to the hub in the Canaries. Most Internet service providers in SADC connect through the South African hub. Jensen says service providers in southern Africa are subsidising their counterparts in the North as the former are required to meet the entire cost of connection to Europe and the US, thus further increasing the cost of Internet in the region.

Although poor infrastructure and other factors have kept Internet services comparatively higher in Africa than in Europe and the US, they remain far lower than other telephony services.

For instance, it costs far less to send a message by email than by fax, which explains why email messages account for most of the traffic on the Internet.

To keep the costs down and affordable to the common folk, SADC needs to invest heavily in telecommunications. The global telecommunications sector, which ranks third after banking and health as the world's fastest growing sectors, is expanding at seven percent per annum, twice the growth rate of the world economy.

While SADC countries have made inroads in privatising state enterprises, the telecommunications sector has remained largely untouched. Although many reasons have been given, including the widely cited one that telecommunications is a strategic industry that cannot be left in the hands of profit-driven trans-nationals, the sector has not convincingly adapted to technological changes.

However, some countries have already begun to enjoy the benefits of public-private sector partnerships. South Africa’s Telkom recently went into partnership with two foreign companies, SBC Communications of the USA and Telekom Malaysia. The sale of 30 percent of Telkom SA to the two partners brought in US$1.261 billion and represented the largest foreign direct investment for infrastructure development into the country.

A strong affirmation for private-public sector partnerships has been underlined during the two annual forums on Smart Partnership in Southern Africa - one in Botswana in 1997 and another in Namibia in 1998.