By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has stressed the importance of fulfilling Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) mandate to ensure the economic resilience of Southern Africa.
Ramaphosa was speaking at the 8th SACU Heads of State and Government Summit held in the Kingdom of Eswatini on Thursday.
Against the backdrop of ongoing global economic challenges, including food and energy crises, inflation, debt tightening, and the climate emergency, Ramaphosa emphasized the need for SACU member states to mitigate the impact of these “seismic shifts” and diversify their economies.
Ramaphosa outlined the tools and strategies SACU can employ to achieve these goals, including spatial development initiatives, industrialization, exports and investment promotion, regional manufacturing linkages, and the utilization of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“South Africa believes that spatial development initiatives, industrialisation, exports and investment promotion and regional manufacturing linkages will enable our countries to diversify our economies. It will also enable us to take advantage of opportunities opened up by the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“For this to happen, we should prioritise economic infrastructure, especially scaling up renewable energy capacity, roads and railways, ports and airports, telecommunications and water infrastructure,” he said.
The President emphasised that the countries are equipped to take advantage of opportunities in the market and raise the continent’s global trade share.
“We are well positioned to use our collective revenues to support industrial capacity and infrastructure development within the union. We cannot be content that Africa’s share in global trade is a mere 3%.
“This customs union should contribute to substantially increase African trade in goods and services. We will achieve this if we have clearly articulated programmes and initiatives.
“We can live up to this if, as SACU, we continue to serve as an important instrument for deepening African economic integration as we strive to develop our economies as well as to advance mutual prosperity and leave no one behind in our region,” he said.