Existing Industries
Lesotho actively participates in the activities of regional organisations, including the Southern African Customs Union(SACU), the Common Monetary Area (CMA) and the Southern African Development Community(SADC), which work to address common issues through region integration, cooperation and coordination. Membership of these groups puts Lesotho in a better position to exploit the opportunities inherent in the globalisation process. The continent-wide process of political and economic integration is taking place within the framework of the New Partnership for Africa's Development(NEPAD). NEPAD's campaign to encourage macroeconomic convergence on the continent and harmonise policy, thereby making Africa more predictable for investment, has focused on implementing double taxation avoiding treaties along with regularising the varying import and export taxes and tariffs throughout the continent. The African Union (AU), too is accelerating the processes for regional economic integration and rationalisation, as well as the consolidation of regional economic communities which are the building blocks for a fully integrated continent. It is also pursuing the idea of a union government for the United States of America.
The common monetary area (CMA) arrangement, to which Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia and South Africa are signatories , provides for circulation of a single currency, the rand, throughout the entire area, while also allowing for the parallel issue of national currencies by the three smaller members. In addition, there is unrestricted transfer of funds within the monetary area and a substantially uniform exchange control regime. A joint resolution has been adapted by the CMA governors to investigate ways of strengthening monetary policy coordination in the region, possibility through the establishment of a Common Central Bank (CCB).
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