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COMESA concludes
(May 23 2001, cairolive.com)
The two-day summit meeting of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) ended in Cairo on Wednesday. The meetings were aimed at solidifying the potentials for increased trade between members of the COMESA, which currently stands at around $4 billion annually. Egypt, which joined the COMESA in 1998, considers the region a potentially lucrative recipient of its exports ranging from pharmaceuticals to textiles.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher Maher reaffirmed that the summit had achieved most of its goals. He indicated that the participants were not waiting for conflicts in COMESA countries to be resolved -- that meetings were taking place in tandem to help solve conflicts in the region, and push forward the economic goals set forth by the union, simultaneously.
Commenting on private sector complaints that were still a lot of kinks in the information networks meant to ease regional economic cooperation, Maher said, "Don't judge things on the short term. This is a new experiment for Egyptian businessmen, so inevitably there will be problems." The foreign minister said he had seen tangible enthusiasm on the part of the private sector.
The summit's secretary general Erasmus Mwencha said COMESA had shown an excellent track record regarding both the implementation of conflict resolution mechanisms, and the encouragement of more of the member countries to join the regional Free Trade Area (FTA) established last year. He expected the number of countries in the FTA to increase from nine to more than 12 in the very near future. The secretary general also aimed to assuage fears that eliminating customs duties would represent a serious loss of income for nations reluctant to join the FTA, saying COMESA studies showed that revenue loss would never be more than 3 per cent. He also said a fund was being established to help those countries whose joining of the free trade area would cause them excessive economic hardship.
Mwencha indicated that one of the summit's main purposes was to listen to signals being sent by the business community and take actions on the governmental level to help resolve problems. An example of this was the summit's response to private sector concerns that inter-continental transportation networks were insufficient. Liberalizing the skies over Africa is one of the goals set forth by the regional grouping in preparation for its next gathering.
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