COMESA - SUPPORTING REGIONAL INTEGRATION (ZNBC TV 2)

Regional integration (RI) has been considered as one of the prominent strategies for development among countries and regions. RI promotes economic growth and industrialization process through fostering intra-regional trade, infrastructure and investment. It provides a huge market for parallel development of new industries, which reduces external vulnerability through increasing bargaining power and in turn, increases the national income.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) was established in 1994 as a successor of the Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern Africa (PTA) set up in 1981 within the framework of the Organization of the African Unity’s (OAU) Lagos Plan of Action and the First Act of Lagos. The COMESA regional block currently comprises of 21 Member States (Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe).

The 18th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Governments of the African Union, held in January 2012, endorsed the framework and road map for the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by an indicative date of 2017 through negotiations on the liberalisation of trade in goods and services.

The AfCFTA will benefit Africa in at least five mutually reinforcing ways. First, its a much larger market whose free flow of goods and services will help to maintain economic growth at 6–7% per year. At this rate the combined GDP of Africa is projected to reach $29 trillion by 2050, which would be equal to the current combined GDP of the EU and the US. With additional policies, such growth will contribute significantly to spreading prosperity and reducing poverty.

Second, the AfCFTA will serve as an impetus for investment in Africa's cross-border infrastructure. It is estimated that Africa needs to invest $93 billion annually in infrastructure over the next decade. Less than half of this target is met currently. One of the reasons for the low level of investment has been poor coordination across the different trading blocs. Building infrastructure will also create additional jobs and foster the development of engineering services.

Benedict Musengele is a senior Research Fellow at the COMESA secretariat who participated on a ZNBC TV 2 programme on Wednesday 6th February 2019 highlighting some of the benefits of Regional Integration.