President Lazarus Chakwera has rebuked the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) for failing to pursue economic integration “with the urgency it deserves”.

He said this yesterday in Lusaka, Zambia during his maiden speech at the 22nd Comesa Heads of State and Government Summit for the 21-member bloc.

The President warned Comesa that delays in implementing economic integration may prove costly to the region.

Said Chakwera: “By the time we fully integrate, the mechanism will have already been rigged against us to ensure that the beneficiaries of our economic integration are non-African economies.”

Chakwera: Delays may prove costly

The Comesa economic integration pillars include working together to increase productive capacities in key sectors such as agriculture, tourism and mining.

The others are liberalising and harmonising processes for facilitating movement of goods and people across the borders and developing infrastructural, transport, energy, digital, and financial, and law-enforcement systems.

Chakwera called for the need for economies to work on the matter urgently so as to develop collective resilience against unpredictable external forces.

He said: “From my perspective, we must accept two realities that necessitate that we move with speed on economic integration. The first of these realities is the devastating period we find ourselves in. Since 2017, ours has been a block of nations under multiple devastating assaults.

“In that six-year period, we have had Cyclone Idai, Tropical Storms Ana and Gombe, and Cyclone Freddy. In that same period, we have suffered droughts, the effects of the war in Eastern Europe.”

Speaking during the opening of the summit’s business forum on Wednesday, Comesa Business Council president Marday Venkatasamy disclosed that trade involving Comesa States in 2021 trade stood at $12.7 billion while importing goods worth $227 billion.

Also delivering his maiden speech was Kenya President William Ruto who said it was unfortunate that intra-Comesa trade, standing at 17 percent, was not solid while calling for a shift in the status quo.

He said: “The business-as-usual approach to trade in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa is unfashionable and unacceptable. We need a systemic shift in the intra-Comesa trade to exploit the many economic opportunities that the 21-member bloc presents.

“It is for this reason that we must partner, share knowledge and experiences on value addition, especially of agricultural commodities, to enhance productivity, offer higher returns, incentivise industrialisation, boost our competitiveness and create more jobs.”

During the summit, Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema took over the leadership of the Comesa Authority of Heads of State. He has replaced Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of Egypt, who has been chairperson for the past three years.

The new chairperson has since promised to ensure economic success in the Comesa and establishment of strong partnerships among member States.

Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye has taken over as vice-chairperson of the authority.

The Summit was held under the theme: ‘Economic integration for a thriving Comesa anchored on green investment, value addition and tourism.”

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