President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to attend the seventh annual Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Summit of Heads of State and Government at Gaborone in Botswana on Thursday.

According to the Presidency, the summit will be attended by Heads of State and Government and representatives of SACU Member States, including Botswana, the Kingdom of Eswatini, the Kingdom of Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa.

“President Ramaphosa will be accompanied by Minister Ebrahim Patel of Trade and Industry, and Deputy Ministers David Masondo and Fikile Majola of Finance and of Trade and Industry, respectively,” the Presidency said in a statement.

This year, the summit will “consider progress made on the implementation of the refocused Work Programme”.

The priorities of this programme include:

• Industrialisation through the development of regional value chains, investment attraction and export promotion;

• Regional Financing Mechanism;

• Trade Facilitation and Logistics, and

• Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

“The summit will further consider the five-year SACU Strategic Plan, as approved by the Council of Ministers on 2 June 2022,” the Presidency said.

Source: South African Government News Agency