Seychelles and Madagascar held discussions with the SADC Secretariat March 1-10, 2017 and this resulted in adoption of project concepts to be developed into project applications by Consultants engaged by SADC. The project applications being developed are to be submitted to SADC Secretariat by the submission deadline of 7.4.17.
The two Member States were added to the list of The Trade Related Facility (TRF) beneficiary countries through an Addendum to the TRF Contribution Agreement in late February 2017 .
The projects proposals from Seychelles will cover trade facilitation, trade remedies and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT’s), while the Madagascar projects range from Industrial development, Quality infrastructure, trade facilitation, trade in services, trade promotion and trade facilitation,
The Trade Related Facility (TRF) is a mechanism to provide financial and technical support to eligible SADC Member States to effectively implement their commitments under the Protocol on Trade and the SADC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). It is supported under the SADC-European Union (EU) Contribution Agreement. The Programme Facility Support Unit has been supporting beneficiary Member States with the development of project applications for funding under the programme. The support entailed technical discussions with the TRF Focal Points in Member States to agree on intervention areas to be developed into project applications, preparation of Terms of Reference for the engagement of Consultants to support Member States with the preparation of applications and development of detailed project proposals in the identified priority areas. As of 28 February 2017, the Euro 20 million had been subscribed to and all projects submitted by Member States had been approved by the TRF Steering Committee.
