Zimbabwe is set to take advantage of its chairmanship of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to drive deeper regional economic integration, increase intra-African trade and accelerate industrialisation.
President Dr Emmerson Mnangagwa will take over the chairmanship when Zimbabwe hosts the 25th COMESA Summit of Heads of State and Government in a few weeks.
The country’s priorities include removing tariff and non-tariff barriers, increasing production and promoting value addition to create a more integrated regional market capable of supporting sustainable economic growth.
President Mnangagwa, who assumed the COMESA vice-chairmanship in Nairobi, Kenya, last year, said Zimbabwe would prioritise increased integration and intra-COMESA trade for the benefit of member states.
In an interview with the media, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Professor Amon Murwira, said Zimbabwe’s COMESA agenda was rooted in the country’s broader commitment to African integration.
“The President talked about integrating Zimbabwe into the global community. But to integrate Zimbabwe into the global community, it must start with Africa. And section 12, subsection 2 of our constitution directs Zimbabwe, as a pan-African country, to integrate into the African region,” he said.
“Therefore, our main aim now is to make sure that as we get into COMESA, we make it as vibrant as can be. First, by believing in the African programme, the African project.”
This year’s COMESA theme, “promoting one market for one future”, dovetails with the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area, particularly the drive to increase intra-African trade.
Professor Murwira said COMESA’s founding objective was to increase trade among member states and reduce the continent’s dependence on external markets.
“The intention of forming COMESA was to make sure that we increasingly trade amongst ourselves, so that Africa becomes dependent on itself. Inter-dependency, intra-Africa dependency is very important,” he said.
“The issue that we are discussing now is how to accelerate this agenda and make sure that we encourage production in goods in services, enabling us to talk about trade amongst ourselves. As long as we don’t produce within ourselves, we’ll continue trading from outside, because those goods are being produced outside.”
He said increased trade must be underpinned by domestic production, beneficiation and industrialisation.
“His Excellency’s doctrine that a country is built by its own people-nyika inovakwa nevene vayo-is such a powerful thing. It transcends several sectors of life, and here we are talking about trade. But of course, that trade must be coming from production,” Professor Murwira said.
“So, beneficiation, value chain analysis, followed by value chain implementation of the modes of that value chain, which is the industrialisation process, is very important for us as Africa, as COMESA, and as any other body that is on the African continent.”
The COMESA Summit will be preceded by a business forum and meetings of ministers responsible for foreign affairs and trade, as member states seek to advance regional economic integration, industrialisation and sustainable development.
