Africa’s largest trading bloc plans to promote intra-regional trade through innovation, an official said on Monday.

Kipyego Cheluget, assistant secretary-general, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) told a regional trade forum in Nairobi that innovation creates technological and comparative advantage, which in turn drives trade.

“Regions with robust innovation activities have higher productivity, economic growth and job creation and have more government revenues available to support spending in core public priorities such as health, education and infrastructure,” Cheluget said during the opening ceremony of the sixth Comesa annual research forum.

The key objective of the five-day event was to bring together academia, think tanks, government officials and the private sector from the 21 member states to discuss emerging topical issues in regional integration.

Cheluget said that members of the economic bloc recognize the importance of science, technology and innovation in socio-economic and cultural development and have agreed to cooperate in the various fields.

Chris Kiptoo, principal secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives said that a more integrated region will enhance economic growth and poverty reduction in eastern and southern Africa.

Kiptoo said that the best way to achieve productivity growth is through greater innovation, which can be defined as the development of new or improved products, services and processes.

He noted that the region’s average high growth rate has not been accompanied by high job growth rates in the face of a rapidly growing population.

Source: Xinhau

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