Southern Africa is developing a joint strategy to improve infrastructure ahead of the soccer World Cup to be hosted by South Africa in 2010. The strategy, known as the Trans-Frontier Conservation Areas 2010 Soccer World Cup Strategy, will be used to develop and market various trans-frontier parks and trans-frontier conservation areas in southern Africa as premier tourist destinations for the region. The region intends to use the soccer tournament to hasten the pace of infrastructural and tourism-based development in identified national parks and conservation areas.
Ministers responsible for tourism in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will soon meet to discuss the strategy and come up with a programme of action. South Africa's hosting of the 2010 World Cup and the need for regional cooperation in boosting infrastructure ahead of the tournament came up for discussion at the SADC Council of Ministers meeting held in Botswana from 23-24 February. Council chairperson, Baledzi Gaolathe, who is also Botswana's minister of finance and development planning, said the initiative aims to develop national parks in southern Africa as part of a joint regional package to showcase its tourism potential at the games.
"The strategy is to be developed and showcased for the 2010 World Cup," said Gaolathe. He noted that several commercial farms around Chobe National Park in Botswana have already been converted into national parks and that similar initiatives are being pursued in other Trans-Frontier Parks (TFPs) to improve their infrastructure in time for the soccer tournament. Chobe, which has a large concentration of wildlife in Africa, joins with other national parks such as Kafue National Park in Zambia, and extends into Zimbabwe.
"Through this project, we want to coordinate efforts and come up with a joint promotion of the 2010 World Cup," Gaolathe said. The regional master plan aims to bring about acceptable standards of infrastructure that can facilitate easier movement of goods, services and people as well as other factors of production within the 14-member regional bloc.