…as SACU summit officially kicks off
LOZITHA – “As SACU member states we should work towards seamless borders.”
These were the words of His Majesty King Mswati III when officially opening the 8th Summit of the SACU Heads of State and Governments.
His Majesty made his opening remarks laying out a summary of SACU’s progress in the past year, as well as his vision for SACU’s role in the development of Africa.
“The importance of SACU cannot be over-emphasised as it plays a major role in the development of our respective countries. We are pleased that we are currently experiencing positive developments in the collection of SACU receipts, which will contribute immensely to the social and economic development of our countries,” said His Majesty.
“As Eswatini, we are happy that during our chairmanship, all member states realised a windfall in our SACU receipts. We need to maintain these positive results and standards to increase the returns even more,” said His Majesty.
“The country’s receipts increased by a significant share of 102% when compared to the previous year. It is the first time seeing such high returns,” added His Majesty.
“Contributing to this positive growth was the higher than projected outrun the 2021/2022 Common Revenue Pool (CRP), together with the 25% increase in the projected size of the CRP for 2023/2024 compared to the 2022/2023 Financial Year. The increase in Eswatini’s share of total intra-SACU imports from 9.6% in the revenue sharing framework for 2022/2023 to 10.8% in 2023/2024, was also a contributing factor,” revealed His Majesty.
“Indeed, the measures that our Ministry of Finance has been implementing to enhance intra-SACU imports have started paying off,” added the King about the increased SACU receipts.
His Majesty went on to encourage SACU member states to collaborate to make it easier to produce and trade economic goods in the region, as well as in the whole of Africa.
“We are also delighted to see the tremendous work that has been done under the trade facilitation Programme which will advance the SACU regional integration agenda. The launch of the authorized economic operators programme in the various SACU member states marks a grater milestone. As SACU member states we should work towards seamless broders, where goods move from one country to another without delays at our points of entry,” said His Majesty.
“The programme also helped fast-track controls and reduction in administration costs for customs clearance. We anticipate seeing fewer delays in shipments, reduced theft and losses of goods just to name a few. As Eswatini, we are very pleased with such developments and thank all those who were responsible for carrying out the new architecture of declaring of goods at the point of entry,” said His Majesty.
“This has come at an opportune time when the continent is working towards trading under one umbrella of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The positive implementation of this initiative to make it more effective, needs programmes that can be successful as SACU,” said His Majesty King Mswati III.
“Your Excellencies, we are here to deliberate on key issues concerning SACU, to provide the necessary political and strategic guidance to our institution. We have seen this organisation grow from strength to strength, moving in the right direction. As members, we must nurture this child of ours and where there are challenges, we need to sit down and find amicable solutions,” said His Majesty before concluding his speech.
“This is particularly important at this time as SACU works on the implementation of its recently approved strategic plan 2022-2027, in the midst of developments which are having a significant impact on our economies,” added His Majesty, King Mswati III. His Majesty King Mswati III was speaking at the 8th Summit of the SACU Heads of State and Governments at Mandvulo Grand Hall at Lozitha today, where government leaders from the five member states of the SACU are congregating.
