• Contribute to economic growth and job creation, as well as to support investment in the Southern Africa region (comprising the 14 SADC countries), and specifically:
• To promote in the SADC region sustainable and environmentally-friendly Investment and Inter-Enterprise Co-Operation Agreements (ICAs) in the Agro-Industry Sector and to increase the competitiveness of the region;
• To support the SADC Agro-Industry industry, and specifically EU-ACP investments and ICAs, by promoting investment opportunities and enabling entrepreneurs to negotiate, and possibly conclude, partnership agreements in this sector;
• Focus on trade and investment rather than aid as the emphasis of Agro-Industry 2008, to better meet the wider objectives for the sector in the SADC region for increased long-term sustainability;
• Focus increasingly on value-adding activities and processing initiatives and less on purely primary agricultural production (which is not excluded);

There are 10 detailed Outputs to be achieved by Agro-Industry 2008, and specific performance indicators identified, but the principal outputs are: 

• Produce 14 comprehensive Sector Studies profiling the agro-industry sector in each of the 14 SADC countries, which will be made available to all Agro-Industry 2008 SPM participants;
• Identify and profile 100+ viable and attractive Investment Proposals/Opportunities in the SADC region, who will attend the Agro-Industry 2008 SPM;
• Identify 100+ high-calibre EU and 3rd Country Investors/Traders who will attend the Agro-Industry 2008 SPM for the purposes of developing sustainable and long-term business partnerships in the SADC region;
• Facilitate and manage 1,000+ one-to-one business meetings between investment promoters and international investors/traders at the Agro-Industry 2008 SPM;
• Through 'matchmaking', secure the signing of 50+ Letters of Intent (or ICAs), signifying potential business, trade and investment partnerships. As an additional incentive, Government agencies, financial institutions and other support services will be present and available to assist these new potential business, trade and investment partnerships to the next step of development (subject to certain criteria being met). 

Project activities are broken-down into 4 main functional areas:

• SADC Sector Studies and Investment Proposals (SPI) Component - identification of investment proposals from the 14 SADC countries
• Promotion in Europe and 3rd Countries (PEU) Component - identification of international investors from the EU-15 and selected other countries
• Communication, Organisation and Logistics (COL) Component - SPM event management and meetings facilitation/management
• Control, Monitoring and Quality Control (CMQ) Component - overall project management and administration aspects