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SACU SHOULD ACCELERATE STRATEGIC PLAN IMPLEMENTATION

29/06/2023 13:41:00 Nhlanganiso Mkhonta

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MBABANE – Chairperson of the SACU Council of Ministers and Eswatini Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg has reiterated the importance of implementation of the SACU Strategic Plan 2022-2027.

Rijkenberg was speaking during the official opening of the 49th meeting of the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) Council of Ministers at Happy Valley hotel yesterday morning.
The minister said it should be recalled that on June 2, 2022, the council approved the SACU Strategic Plan 2022-2027, which was also endorsed by the 7th SACU Summit.
The Strategic Plan is premised on six pillars:
   (a) Industrialisation, export and investment promotion;
   (b) Trade facilitation and logistics;
   (c) Implementation and leveraging of AfCFTA opportunities;
   (d) Trade relations/unified engagement with third parties;
   (e) Finance and resource mobilisation; and
   (f) Effectiveness of SACU Institutions.

Rijkenberg said it was, therefore, important that as SACU they should accelerate the implementation of the strategic plan. He said while the plan outlined critical initiatives that SACU agreed to implement over the 5-year period, but the real test and success would only be realised if they implemented it.

Fast-track

“This Strategic Plan provides SACU with a unique opportunity to fast-track industrialisation and broadens our economies post the COVID-19 pandemic, which will provide employment opportunities for our citizens,” said Rijknberg. He said it was, therefore, important that they dedicated their time and resources to ensuring it was successfully implementation.
The minister said their meeting as council of ministers was also taking place when the global economic prospects remained subdued. He said based on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts, the global economy was expected to fall from 3.4 per cent in 2022 to 2.8 per cent in 2023, with a slight improvement to 3.0 per cent in 2024.

Projected

He said the slowdown was also projected for the advanced economies, from 2.7 per cent in 2022 to 1.3 per cent in 2023 and forecast to remain subdued at 1.4 per cent in 2024. Rijkenberg said similar trends were projected for the emerging market and developing economies with a lower growth rate of 3.9 per cent in 2023 compared to 4.0 per cent for 2022, with an improved rate of 4.2 per cent in 2024. He noted that the Sub-Saharan Africa would also experience similar growth prospects as the rest of the world with SACU Member States expected to record an average weighted growth rated of 1.8 per cent in 2023 compared to 2.3 per cent in 2022.

Signs

The minister said, however, there were positive signs relating to the global inflation, following successive increases since the outbreak of COVID-19 and exacerbated by the Ukraine-Russia conflict. “Inflation is now forecast to decline from 8.7 per cent in 2022 to 7.0 per cent in 2023 at the backdrop of lower commodity prices,” he said. The minister also highlighted that their meeting was also taking place amid political developments in the region. He said this included the national elections in the Kingdom of Eswatini, which would be held later in the year. “We hope this will be successful,” said the minister. He highlighted that their meeting was preceding the 8th Summit of the SACU heads of State or Government, which will be held today.

Progress

He said they were hoping to report substantial progress to the summit on the implementation of the projects/programmes emanating from the strategic plan. He said indeed, they expected the updates to cover the directive from the 7th Summit, last year, to prioritise the fertilisers, agro-chemicals and seed production as part of the agro-processing in view of the food security challenges the region is facing. The minister said they were also looking forward to the update on the implementation of the strategic plan since this was one of the critical initiatives that the council must ensure that it was a success.