The president of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), the country's largest business association, Agostinho Vuma, on Tuesday pointed to tariff and non-tariff barriers as a brake on economic integration in southern Africa.

Agostinho Vuma was speaking during the opening ceremony of a business forum of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which has been held since yesterday in Maputo.

"The challenges to regional integration, within SADC, are evident, such as the prevalence of tariff and non-tariff barriers," he said.

The low production capacity and prohibitive interest rates imposed by the banks weaken the power of the SADC business fabric to assume a more effective role in the countries' economic development and regional integration, he added.

In this sense, he continued, reforms are needed to strengthen Southern African businesses with the aim of rapidly integrating the region's economies towards a future free trade zone.

The CTA president defended the need for a growing role for Southern African companies in strategic sectors of the economy currently taken over by multinationals.

"As our vision, we bet on the development of a more active role in the prospection and exploration of each country's resources by national companies in the areas where the multinationals have been acting," defended Agostinho Vuma.

The SADC business forum, which kicked off this Tuesday, will discuss the socio-economic impact of covid-19 and post-pandemic recovery strategies, infrastructure and regional corridor development.

Industrialization focused on improving the balance of trade within the countries of the region, the role of energy sectors, mineral resources, and the participation of the national business community in megaprojects will also be topics of the conference.

The forum comes ahead of the SADC heads of state and government summit in Maputo on Wednesday to discuss a response and support in combating terrorism in the north of the country.

The organization is made up of 16 states, namely: Mozambique, Angola, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia, and Comoros.