23 Nov 2016

Southern African Custom Union (SACU) member states have been called upon to develop long term mitigation measures to ensure predictability and certainty of SACU revenues.

Speaking during a publicity and awareness road show in Gaborone on Tuesday, the Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Mr Biggie Butale said growth in emerging markets had weakened in the past few years due to depressed commodity prices hence economic activity in SACU continued to be low.

Mr Butale said an estimated deficit of five per cent in the common revenue Pool was foreseen for the financial year 2017/2018, hence vital for SACU to act up.

Mr Butale said the SACU roadshow under the theme “connecting the customs union with its stakeholders” deliberately attempted to keep Batswana abreast with SACU as an institution which was a significant contributor to the national budget.

He said as a part of accountability to member states, SACU secretariat organised regular interactive sessions with stakeholders to share successes, challenges and risks in the implementation of the SACU roadmap as well as emerging issues on regional and international trade landscape.

For her part, SACU executive secretary Ms Pauline Elago said the event was a continuation of a journey undertaken jointly by the SCU secretariat and SACU member states to engage business community and stakeholders on matters of mutual interest.

Highlighting on trading across borders, Ms Elago said the 2017 World Bank Doing Business Survey Indicator ranks the SACU members states out of 190 countries as follows, Botswana 74, Lesotho 100, Namibia 108, Swaziland 111 and South Africa 74.

She said the variables used include distance travelled, domestic transport, time, cost and speed, adding that there were improvements with some countries such as Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia.
“From this assessment, it is clear that there is still a lot that could be done to enhance boarder processes,” she said.

Ms Elago said these could be done through developing concerted measures to address constraints in areas such as boarder cooperation, release and clearance of goods.

The SACU roadshow first started in Namibia in 2015 followed by Swaziland in March 2016 and will continue to Lesotho and South Africa.

The roadshow is said to demonstrate the SACU secretariat’s commitment to roll out knowledge on SACU member states to bridge the knowledge gap amongst various stakeholders. BOPA