It's all systems go ahead of the 9th Southern African Customs Union Heads of State and Governments' Summit on Friday.
The summit scheduled to take place in Cape Town, South Africa, follows a series of SACU institutional meetings.
Among the meetings that took place are the trade facilitation technical committee of senior officials, SACU senior trade and finance officials, the risk management conference and the commission.
The key agenda items include updates on SACU's human resources, the pay and organisational structure.
Chairperson of the SACU Ministers Council Enoch Godongwana explained.
"We will receive an update on the implementation of the Strategic Plan, which covers the reports of the two technical committees of senior officials on, among other things, industrialisation, export and investment promotion, and on trade, precipitation and logistics. Our meeting precedes the 9th Summit. Therefore, we will also consider and approve documentation for the summit, mainly on the proposed agenda, and issues will be elevated to our heads of state or government, as well as the draft to communicate."
SACU remains a vital source of revenue for its member states, and the customs union is working towards industrialisation and regional value chains as drivers of sustainable economic growth in Southern Africa.
Global uncertainties, however, continue to pose significant challenges, underscoring the need for SACU member states to closely monitor developments and their potential impact on the regional trade and economic growth.
"We remain highly optimistic that a permanent solution will be reached completely and in the war in the Middle East. As well, we are all aware that should this war persist, it will lessen the geopolitical fragmentation and elevate trade tensions, which will lessen the global growth prospect and destabilise the global financial markets. Still on the global front, we appreciate that AGOA was renewed for one year, which brought relief to our business community, benefiting from USA market access."
South Africa's tenure as SACU Chair is set to end on the 14th July, after which Botswana will assume the rotational chairmanship.