BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – His Majesty King Mswati III is vouching and pushing for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He revealed this yesterday during the official 8th SACU Summit held at Mandvulo Grand Hall.
His Majesty said the Summit had come at an opportune time when the continent is working towards trading under one umbrella of the African Continental Free Trade Area(AfCFTA)
Adding that the positive implementation of this initiative to make it more effective needs programmes that can be as successful as SACU.
“We do realise that vehicles of trade such as SACU were not built in one day but we trust that they will be developed gradually, leading to a day when we can all say Africa is not trading effectively,” said His Majesty.
The King further said, they also need to bring forth and share other success stories under SACU to motivate best practices that can be adopted by the AfCFTA to boost intra-Africa trade.
Another thing His Majesty talked about was regarding industrialisation, particularly the profiling of projects, resource mobilisation, and implementation in the areas of meat and meat products, leather and leather products, fruits and vegetables, textiles and pharmaceuticals the Summit recognised that the Member States have agreed to prioritise projects that are ready for implementation and can yield immediate benefits.
The Summit noted that following its directive in June 2022 to prioritise the production of fertilisers, Agro-Chemicals, and Seed Production, Member States have formed a Task Team and agreed on the Terms of Reference to advance work in this area. The Task Team will assess the work done by other organisations such as SADC, COMESA, USAID, and FAO, and leverage their efforts, as this matter involves all SACU Member States.
In parallel, Member States have started developing a comprehensive implementation program outlining the necessary tasks.
