2  I congratulate the graduands for their successful completion of their studies and also thank the parents and guardians for their sacrifice to support the students, throughout their school life. Investment in building our country’s human capacity is the most valuable contribution which parents and guardians can make to the future of our nation.
Stakeholder participation is essential so that even amidst confounding global developments such as the Brexit and the United States’ seeming turn to protectionist policy, we can stand resilient and stay calm, with inflation at 3.1 percent in the first half of 2017, well within the government’s inflation target range for the year. Our external payments position remains manageable.