COMESA leaders discuss free trade
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni is among the 10 leaders of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (COMESA) countries meeting in Nairobi to discuss ways of enhancing its free trade zone.
By Reuben Olita
in Nairobi
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni is among the 10 leaders of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (COMESA) countries meeting in Nairobi to discuss ways of enhancing its free trade zone.
Other leaders attending the two-day 12th summit at the UN Complex in Gigiri, are Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Levy Mwanawasa (Zambia), Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi, King Mswati III of Swaziland, Navin Ramgoolan of Mauritius. Sudan and Comoros Islands were represented by their vice-presidents.
On the first day of the summit yesterday, the Keynan President, Mwai Kibaki, assumed the chairmanship of the bloc from Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Guelleh, while Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was elected vice chairman.
Kibaki said they would remain focused on their shared vision of attaining a fully-integrated and internationally competitive economic community in which goods, services, capital and labour would move freely across national borders.
Guelleh revealed that the COMESA Fund had come into force following the recent ratification of the protocol by the required number of member-states.
The fund will be used to extend financial support to member-states under the customs union.
It will be a useful instrument for addressing structural adjustment, supply side constraints and issues of competitiveness facing economies of member-states when dealing with trade liberalisation, he explained.
Guelleh said export indicators showed that the COMESA market was gradually replacing the European one as the main export destination of some of the member-states.
“The promotion of peace and security within the region is a precondition for the development of trade, but also for ensuring an environment for attracting and protecting investment,†Guelleh said.
King Mswati expressed optimism that the customs union would transform economies of member-states, thereby making COMESA region a land of unlimited opportunities for “our children and many more generations to come and thus making all the founding members proud.†The Heads of State Summit, the highest decision making organ within the trading bloc, is expected to give a green light to the formation of a customs union which was recently endorsed by the council of ministers.
The ministers recommended that the union be in place by December 8, next year. The summit will also give its input on the necessary laws and other logistics that need to be put in place before the proposed deadline.
Seven states have already implemented the customs union resolutions and will be pushing for a legal structure at the summit meeting.
The meeting will also address hindrances to free trade which include export restrictions, bureaucratic customs and administrative procedures at borders.
The volume of COMESA trade has more than doubled from about $4b in 2001 to approximately $9b in 2005.
Meanwhile, Kagame’s convoy was involved in an accident as they were heading to their hotel after the summit on Gigiri road.
Kagame’s vehicle had just gone through when two other cars, which were following his, rammed into each other. Museveni had just passed through when the mishap occurred.
in Nairobi
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni is among the 10 leaders of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (COMESA) countries meeting in Nairobi to discuss ways of enhancing its free trade zone.
Other leaders attending the two-day 12th summit at the UN Complex in Gigiri, are Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Levy Mwanawasa (Zambia), Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi, King Mswati III of Swaziland, Navin Ramgoolan of Mauritius. Sudan and Comoros Islands were represented by their vice-presidents.
On the first day of the summit yesterday, the Keynan President, Mwai Kibaki, assumed the chairmanship of the bloc from Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Guelleh, while Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was elected vice chairman.
Kibaki said they would remain focused on their shared vision of attaining a fully-integrated and internationally competitive economic community in which goods, services, capital and labour would move freely across national borders.
Guelleh revealed that the COMESA Fund had come into force following the recent ratification of the protocol by the required number of member-states.
The fund will be used to extend financial support to member-states under the customs union.
It will be a useful instrument for addressing structural adjustment, supply side constraints and issues of competitiveness facing economies of member-states when dealing with trade liberalisation, he explained.
Guelleh said export indicators showed that the COMESA market was gradually replacing the European one as the main export destination of some of the member-states.
“The promotion of peace and security within the region is a precondition for the development of trade, but also for ensuring an environment for attracting and protecting investment,†Guelleh said.
King Mswati expressed optimism that the customs union would transform economies of member-states, thereby making COMESA region a land of unlimited opportunities for “our children and many more generations to come and thus making all the founding members proud.†The Heads of State Summit, the highest decision making organ within the trading bloc, is expected to give a green light to the formation of a customs union which was recently endorsed by the council of ministers.
The ministers recommended that the union be in place by December 8, next year. The summit will also give its input on the necessary laws and other logistics that need to be put in place before the proposed deadline.
Seven states have already implemented the customs union resolutions and will be pushing for a legal structure at the summit meeting.
The meeting will also address hindrances to free trade which include export restrictions, bureaucratic customs and administrative procedures at borders.
The volume of COMESA trade has more than doubled from about $4b in 2001 to approximately $9b in 2005.
Meanwhile, Kagame’s convoy was involved in an accident as they were heading to their hotel after the summit on Gigiri road.
Kagame’s vehicle had just gone through when two other cars, which were following his, rammed into each other. Museveni had just passed through when the mishap occurred.