President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on all members of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) to diversify their economies and ensure that they increase inter-African trade. He also advocated for industrialisation and infrastructure development in the region.
SACU consists of five members namely Eswatini, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. Ramaphosa was addressing the 8th SACU Heads of State or Government Summit in EswatinI.
Ramaphosa has also called on members to work together for the benefit of the region.
” We are well positioned your majesties, heads of states and government to use our collective revenues to support industrial capacity and infrastructure development within the SACU union.”
The SACU Heads of State and Government are providing political and strategic guidance following the one year review of the SACU Strategic Plan 2022-2027 under implementation since it's adoption. pic.twitter.com/XhyoL5vDdk
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) June 29, 2023
Ramaphosa said more can be done to take Southern African states to the next step in their development. He said this year’s summit needed to intensify discussions on how to diversify SACU members’ economies to promote inter-African trade and integration.
” We should prioritise economic, infrastructure especially scaling up renewable energy capacity, our roads, our railways, ports, airport telecommunication and water infrastructure.”
Ramaphosa also touched on the effects of the on-going conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“Just as countries were beginning to recover in the aftermath of COVID-19, the global economy has been further weakened by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and geopolitical contestation that is underway as the UN conference on the trade and development noted earlier this year, food and energy crisis, surging inflation, debt and the climate emergency are all contributing to one of the lowest rate of global economic growth in decades.”
Ramaphosa is accompanied by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Minister of Finance and the South African Revenue Service Commissioner.
