SUN CITY, North West Province – 25 June 2025

The MEC for the North West Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism (DEDECT), Bitsa Lenkopane hosted an interprovincial engagement with her counterpart, MEC for the Free State Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (DESTEA), Ketso Makume with the aim of forging a collaboration to unlock cross-border initiatives and deliver mutual benefit for the two provinces.

The session ran parallel to the third G20 Sherpa meeting held on the 25th-26th June 2025, at Sun City Resort, Moses Kotane Local Municipality.

The interprovincial session was attended by HOD for DEDECT, CEO of North West Development Corporation, Mr Mojalefa Nale as well as Senior Managers from both departments.

In her opening remarks MEC Lenkopane highlighted that the two provinces shared geographic assets and economic interests, hence it is strategic for them to engage and promote interprovincial economic cooperation.

MEC Makume echoed the same sentiments when he said we should not allow the provincial borders to be barriers of progress. We should put communities first, considering that communities and labour are already intertwined.

The meeting engaged in robust deliberations on cross border opportunities and areas of cooperation. The discussions explored economic sectors of cooperation such as agro-industrial development, renewable and green energy, industrial and logistics, tourism and cultural routes as well as skills and enterprise support.

Following the deliberations, the two provinces came to an agreement to develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU will give guidance on areas of implementation and practicalities thereof. In most of these areas, the North West Development Corporation will play a pivotal implementation role as the economic development agency under DEDECT.

Identified areas of cooperation and mutual learning include Special Economic Zones, tourism, heritage and cultural activities, agriculture, industrial parks, enterprise development opportunities around airports, dams and Vredefort Dome UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The envisaged MoU will activate working forums and facilitate follow-up meetings to implement the agreed-upon initiatives.

The meeting involved a tour to the stalls of North West MSMEs who were exhibiting their products as part of the G20 Sherpa Track meeting.

In concluding the meeting, the host MEC Lenkopane remarked that she was excited to see the collaboration of the two provinces bringing a caring government to the people of North West and Free State.