Report: COMESA summit in Egypt
Regional-Africa, Politics, 2/29/2000

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak opened yesterday the first regional economic conference for Comesa 2000, in the Cairo International Convention Center in Nasr City (Cairo).

The conference is held under the slogan 'the emerging African market' and last for 2 days in the participation of 21 countries among whom are the Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, the current chairman of COMESA; Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, head of the country hosting the assembly's headquarters; King Mswati III of Swaziland; Erasmus Mwencha, secretary general of Comesa; and Klaus Schwab, chairman of the International Economic Forum.

In his address opening the conference, President Mubarak urged the African countries on the importance of catch the globalization, the communications revolution, working through regional and international circles to limit the risks of globalization and magnifying the benefits of its advantages.

Mubarak said Egypt's initiative on convening this conference aims at enhancing economic relations, increasing the volume of trade among the COMESA countries, enhancing cooperation among the private sectors in these countries and foreign businessmen, referring that Cairo's meeting precedes date of declaring establishing the free zone for COMESA assembly during the Lusaka summit in October. He said that success in achieving this goal reflects the complete commitment of COMESA's agreement on the way to establish the economic group for the eastern and southern African countries.

He referred in his address to the weakness of the trade between the COMESA countries, asserting his confidence that the complete cancellation of customs fees on the imports and exports among these countries and declaring the free trade zone will lead to a wide jump in the volume of commercial exchange. Mubarak urged representatives of multinational companies to play a bigger role in guaranteeing achieving a balanced growth among the countries.

Zambian President Frederick Chiluba reviewed the problems confronting COMESA, whether as individual poverty, lack of drinkable water, basic education and health services or as countries like globalization, terms of international trade, the prices of resources and regional disputes.

Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, as head of Comesa, urged the member states in eastern and southern Africa to get rid of all barriers and obstacles in order to achieve economic and commercial cooperation so that the African countries can invest their precious resources in establishing strong economics, urging the businessmen and the investors to work in area of the member states.

King of Swaziland, Mswati III, gave time to talking about the private sector's experiment in his country, toward which he was very enthusiastic, saying that the sector will play a very important role in achieving Comesa goals that are represented in establishing a free zone in the area.

Klaus Schwab, head of the Davos International Economic Forum, undertook to support Africa to attract more foreign investments and dealing with the new techniques topped by the electronic trade.

In his address before the conference, Schwab stated that he felt through the discussions and the addresses delivered a strong commitment toward globalization, the role of the private sector and adhering to benefiting from the opportunities provided by the new economic movements in the world.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa asserted Egypt's commitment to COMESA's goals and its adherence on the active work to achieve the economic integrity and the establishment of free trade zone in frame of this assembly, saying that the new addition for COMESA assembly is represented in establishing a free trade zone that comprises a market of 380 million citizen that represent more than half of the continent's census.

Moussa stated, "We must confirm having the will among the officials from one side and businessmen as well as the private sector on the other hand, and the cooperation in order to achieve a joint interest."

The participants assured in the first session of COMESA conference that destiny of the assembly and the whole African continent is related to its worldly economy.

Erasmus Mwencha, COMESA secretary general, said in his address that COMESA had achieved a lot so far which allows the establishment of a large investment cooperation, saying that volume of the commercial exchange among the COMESA countries has increased due to the gradual decrease to the customs compensations on the inter-member trade from $834 million in 1985 to $4.3 billion in 1998.

Ahmed Bahgat, deputy chairman of the African Development Bank in Cote D'Ivoire, referred to the achievements by the COMESA countries increasing the economic growth averages, saying that Egypt comes on top of these countries as it has achieved an average growth of 5%.

Ablasi Owago, deputy general manger of the trade organization, stated that despite the progress, trade among the COMESA countries is still low as its volume in 1998 only represented 5% of trade volume on the international level.

The Egyptian investors and businessmen assured the necessity of investing the first economic COMESA conference in promoting the investment chances and finding investment partners in some projects especially in the fields which need not only the funds but also the modern technology in frame in the intensive attendance from representatives and heads of the worldly companies and the international investment and finance circles'.

Previous Stories:
  Mubarak inaugurates COMESA Conference   (2/28/2000)
  Opening the economic summit COMESA on Monday   (2/25/2000)
  COMESA 2000, good initiative for economic cooperation   (2/17/2000)

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