Ethiopia will be hosting the 34th COMESA policy organ meetings that start on March 20 this week, leading up to the 18th COMESA Summit of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa concluding on March 31.

State Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ahmed Shide, briefed journalists on the program, pointing out that there would be nine Summit sessions and the theme would be “inclusive and sustainable industrialization”.

The Summit will be preceded by the Council of Ministers meeting whose mandate is to monitor COMESA activities, including supervision of the Secretariat.

In his briefing to the media, Ahmed emphasized the trade of COMESA (the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) had been growing but there was still a long way to go and the regional bloc needed to do more.

However, there had been important developments under COMESA’s regional integration agenda in intra-regional trade and the volume had increased.

The State Minister said the opportunity of the Summit would help Ethiopia reaffirm its support to COMESA and share national best practices with other countries.

He also noted that road links between member countries and ongoing railway investments, as well as the East Africa power system improvement were all boosting the capacity of COMESA member states and their capability to generate more wealth and opportunities to expand trade.

Ethiopia is taking over the chairmanship of COMESA for the next year from DRC.

Source: All Africa

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