24 Nov 2016

Deputy permanent secretary in the Office of the President responsible for Botswana Government Communication and Information System (BGCIS), Dr Jeff Ramsay says there is need to increase Southern African Customs Union’s (SACU) visibility and awareness among the leaders, ordinary citizen of its Member States and wider community.

Dr Ramsay said this at a press conference held in Gaborone, which was also part of a three-day session of SACU’s roadshow planned for Botswana.

He said the roadshow was a very important starting point for creating broader understanding of SACU and its secretariat.

He suggested that SACU could make use of online media because it was cheap, fastest and most direct way of reaching the masses.

“Our very own BW government Facebook page, for example on a monthly basis, regularly reaches about 400 000 individuals,” he said.

Dr Ramsay said one of the drivers of economic development of any country and region was civil education and employment.

“The populace can take a meaningful role in the growth of the economy, as it was through an educated population and human resource base that the economy could mobilise factors of production towards socio economic prosperity for all. With regard to the existence of the SACU, Dr Ramsay said for smaller states such as Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa (BNLS), SACU was a major source of state revenue.

“Besides this fact, it is apparent that the nature of SACU, its contributions and cost, opportunities and threats would appear to be sufficiently understood by opinion leaders in politics, business and the media, as well as the general public,” he said.

He further said that both quantitative and qualitative evidence for this could be found in the relatively low and often shallow level of reporting in SACU in contrast to other regional institutions such as SADC.

“Indeed until recently, SACU reporting, tended to be obscure rather than underscore the nature of economic interdependence within SACU,” he said.

For her part, SACU executive secretary, Ms Paulina Elago said although SACU was one of the oldest unions in operation, having been established in 1910, they did take note that the knowledge and understanding of the union was very limited and they intend changing that.

“This event is intended to offer an opportunity for dialogue with the national stakeholders, extend awareness on the benefits of the customs union,” she said.

She said the event was held to share knowledge and raise awareness on SACU, its institutions, operations and programmes.

“Ultimately, we want to enhance the understanding and knowledge on SACU by members of the public in each of our SACU member states,” she said. BOPA