SA Coat of Arms 4.jpg Media Statement, 9 June 2016 President Zuma Concludes Consultations with SACU Member States with Working Visit to the Kingdom of Lesotho President Jacob Zuma has concluded his consultations with member states of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), with his successful working visit to visit to the Kingdom of Lesotho today, 09 June 2016, where he held talks with Lesotho Prime Minister Honourable Dr Pakalitha Mosisili. The 105 year old SACU is one of the oldest customs unions in the world, consisting of five members, namely, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa. President Zuma, as the current chair of the SACU Summit, conducted working visits to the other SACU member states, namely, Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland, a month ago for similar consultations on SACU. The consultations held today in Maseru is a follow-up from the special meeting of the SACU Council of Ministers and informal engagement of the Summit of the Heads of State and Government that took place on 11-12 November 2015 on the margins of the SACU Headquarters Building inauguration in Windhoek, Namibia. Ministerial Retreat The discussions focused on turning SACU into a vehicle for regional development which will benefit all the SACU members and to lay the groundwork for a Ministerial Retreat of Ministers of Finance and Trade and Industry. At the Retreat, Ministers will look at how this can be done and on economic activities that would need to take place. Some of the economic activities could include building regional infrastructure, supply-side capacities, industrial development and value chains to stimulate regional growth and development. SACU Summit, roadmap President Zuma stated that the report from the Ministerial Retreat will be presented to the SACU Summit, which will contain a clear roadmap on how to take SACU forward to increase the resilience of the SACU economies and to push for greater integration of our respective economies. President Zuma stated that: "SACU as an important instrument for industrialisation and economic development must economically empower and benefit all its member states and their people." Whilst in Maseru, President Zuma also paid a courtesy call on His Majesty King Letsie III. President Zuma was accompanied by Ms Maite Nkoana Mashabane, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation; Dr Rob Davies, Minister of Trade and Industry and Mr Pravin Gordhan, Minister of Finance. Issued by: The Presidency, Pretoria Enquiries: Dr Bongani Ngqulunga on 082 308 9373 or [email protected] and Sidwell Medupe on 079 492 1774 or [email protected] www.thepresidency.gov.za -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/002101d1c28d%24cb57a0f0%246206e2d0%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
