Bongi Kunene Noting the failures of past economic integration agendas, one has to understand the context of our efforts today. Firstly, the political arena has changed dramatically. Southern Africa is now characterised by multi-party democracies and relatively open­market economies. We are aware how fragile peace is in a number of our economies and how we therefore seem to be locked in the arena of“potential” and possibilities. For southern African democracies to succeed, it is important that democratic proc­esses and institutions are strengthened. Multi-party elections would not yield ex­pected successes if they are viewed as“the event” in the absence of a culture of democracy and supporting structures, like the FES, that seek to build and reinforce on-the-ground democratic culture and procedures. Seondly, the context of economic integration has also changed. Economic liberali­sation, which began in the 1980s for most southern African countries, has yielded mixed results. Often the success of liberalisation is questioned and the lack thereof is said to be in the failure of countries to adhere to all“prescriptions”, the inappro­priate sequencing of liberalisation measures, and sometimes, the lack of institu­tional support mechanisms. There has been marked improvement in the economic growth performance in south­ern Africa from 1994-1997. On aggregate, SADC economies have been growing faster than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. Macro-economic indicators seem to sug­gest that SADC economies are prudently managed through sound fiscal and mon­etary policies. Debt is still a major concern. For those economies that have adopted a cash budget(at least three: Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia) we have begun to witness encouraging budget surpluses. However, there is no scope for complacency. Budget deficits have proved to be a major obstacle in economic growth of the past and they will continue to be so. It is therefore encouraging to note that the macro-economic stability message is taken seriously by SADC governments and a number of initia­tives have been designed at country level to address this. In South Africa, for exam­ple, the Growth Employment and Redistribution(GEAR) strategy was designed as a set of supply-side and demand-driven policies that seek to address macro-economic concerns in a way that addresses broader socio-political concerns. The current preoccupation with the Asian crisis has led southern African countries to assess whether the economic gains made in the past three years can be sustained. Because the level of globalisation of our financial markets is not advanced enough, it would appear that our financial markets were not severely impacted upon. But, these are early indications. What is currently happening with the Rand indicates that there is cause for concern. The Finance and Investment Sector Themes In the light of the context explained above, it was not quite possible for the SADC Finance Ministers to adopt radical themes for economic integration. In this sense, I 32