COMESA calls for domestication of its customs management regulations Kinshasa, March 2 nd , 2014, ZANIS --- THE COMMON Market for Eastern and Southern Africa ( COMESA) has urged its member States to domesticate and implement the customs management regulations and the common tariff nomenclature. The regional body has also requested Member States that have not domesticated the customs union instruments to provide annual updates on the status of implementation and domestication of the customs union instruments. This is according to a Communiqué issued at the end of the 17th COMESA Summit for Heads of State and Government held at the African Union ( AU) Villa and read by Raymond Tshibanda Ntúngamulongo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Fracophonie, of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 17th COMESA Summit was held under the theme: Consolidating Intra - COMESA Trade through Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development . It was attended by Presidents from Member states, among them President Michael Sata, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Omar Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir of Sudan, Ismael Omar Guelleh of Djibouti and Joyce Banda of Malawi. COMESA has noted with appreciation that intra - COMESA trade has increased six times to US 19.3 billion by the end of 2012, since the establishment of the Free Trade Area ( FTA) in 2000 when the trade stood at US 3.1 billion. The regional body has further noted with appreciation that 40 percent of intra - COMESA trade was through Micro Small and Medium Enterprises ( SMEs) thus contributing to economic growth , wealth creation and improving the living standards of people. The 17th COMESA Summit has also adopted the COMESA Micro Small Medium Enterprises ( MSME) Strategy and commended the positive impact of the COMESA Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Cluster Programme that has contributed towards national and regional value chains and business partnership among MSMEs. It has also urged Member States to support women entrepreneurs by increasing their inclusion and participation in policy making bodies such as corporate boards and further directed that the Joint Committee of Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors to consider the proposal of setting up a COMESA MSME Fund and a Women Economic Empowerment Fund that would facilitate access to affordable financing and capacity building by ensuring the inclusion of women and the youth. On the industrialisation of the COMESA region, the 17 th COMESA Summit has acknowledged that natural resources are an anchor for the economic and social transformation of socities and has underscored the importance of commodity-based industrialisation. It has also noted with satisfaction the new COMESA initiative on minerals vale addition and industrial clusters. ZANIS/ENDS/JM/MM...........................DRY
Posted on: Sun, 02 Mar 2014 12:52:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015