Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry Nevine Gamea has announced that the New Administrative Capital will host the 21st COMESA Heads of State and Government Summit on 23 November.
The minister said that the summit will be held under the theme, “Building Resilience through Strategic Digital Economic Integration”.
This year’s summit aims at encouraging the use of digital economy tools to facilitate business practice within the COMESA community and enhancing the resilience of the 21 member states to face the negative repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic on their economies.
During the summit, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi will receive the presidency of the COMESA from the President of Madagascar. In addition, he will launch the new Regional Strategy for Development of Statistics (RSDS) for 2021 – 2025.
In a press conference on Sunday, Gamea said that the Egyptian government is looking forward to making the most of Egypt’s second presidency of COMESA through increasing and deepening cooperation with the member countries.
“Egypt’s assumption of this seat will contribute to strengthening its efforts to achieve economic integration in Africa and to overcome obstacles that may hinder free trade among the COMESA member states. In addition, Egypt aims to use this event to open channels of communication between governments and the private sector to increase investments within the continent,” Gamea said.
She pointed out that the ministry identified a number of proposals to promote the industrial integration which could be implemented during Egypt’s presidency of COMESA.
Furthermore, Egypt will attract non-members of the free trade zone to join and apply customs exemption on their imports from COMESA countries, proposing the establishment of a mechanism to review commercial policies of COMESA countries.
Meanwhile, Egypt aims to share its experience in field of SMEs with COMESA members through the organization’s secretariat. It also works on encouraging agricultural integration between COMESA countries, and involving the private sector in agricultural development projects.
COMESA Secretary General Chileshe Kapwepwe said that the upcoming summit comes at a very important time, especially in light of challenges imposed by COVID-19 on most of the group’s economies.
Kapwepwe noted that the pandemic presents though a motivation for COMESA countries to continue working to deepen economic integration and create a better environment for business in various sectors, mainly telecommunications, transportation, and energy.
