COMESA Summit Timetable Released The timetable of the 20th COMESA Heads

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1 1 Issue #: 556_19 th June 2018 COMESA Summit Timetable Released The timetable of the 20th COMESA Heads of State and Governments Summit and other Policy Organs meetings has been issued. The Summit will take place in Lusaka, Zambia on July It will be preceded by meetings of ministers and technical officials starting from July 9, The theme for this year Summit is: COMESA: Towards Digital Economic Integration. It is designed to rally member States towards the full adoption of digital technologies. The focus is on establishing seamless processes across COMESA region to enable ease of doing Business/Trade and to enhance regional integration using ICT as a tool. Currently, COMESA is rolling out instruments of Digital Free Trade Area (DFTA), that incorporates e-trade, e- logistics and e-legislation to minimise physical barriers in its Member states. Delegations from the 19-member regional economic bloc are expected to start arriving in Lusaka beginning July 7, The Summit will take place at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka. Among the key issues in the agenda of this year s Summit is the consideration of membership to COMESA, by Tunisia and Somalia. Negotiations for the admission of the two States have been concluded. What remains is the endorsement of Somalia by the 38th Council of Ministers mostly and subsequent approval by the Heads of State Assembly. Tunisia was endorsed by the Council during its 37th meeting in Lusaka in November This will raise the number of COMESA States from the current 19 to 21. The Summit is also expected to appoint a new Secretary General of COMESA to take over from Mr. Sindiso Ngwenya whose tenure of office is coming to an end. The Intergovernmental Committee (IC) which comprises of Permanent/Principal Secretaries will be the curtain raiser for the 10 days annual event and will take three days 9 11 July The IC is responsible for the development of programmes and action plans in all fields of co-operation except in the finance and monetary sector. Summit timetable: It will review progress reports presented by various sectoral committees and COMESA Institutions and make recommendations to the Council of Ministers for decision making. The Council of Ministers will meet on July 2018 to make decisions on various recommendations presented by the Intergovernmental Committee on the way forward on implementation of COMESA integration programmes. The 38th Meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee: 9-11 July 2018 The ESA/EPA Senior Officials Meeting: 12 July 2018 Peace and Security Committee Meeting: July th COMESA Business Council Forum: July 2018 The 38th Council of Ministers meeting July 2018 The ESA/EPA Council of Ministers Meeting: 15 July 2018 Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs: July 2018 The 10th First Ladies Round Table: July 2018 The 20th Summit of the COMESA Heads of State & Govt: July 2018 This bulletin is published by the COMESA Secretariat Corporate Communications Unit but does not necessarily represent views of the Secretariat. For Feedback: pr@comesa.int Contact Address : COMESA SECRETARIAT, COMESA Center, Ben Bella Road P.O. Box 30051, , e-comesa@comesa.int

2 2 Call to Establish a Secretariat to Reinvigorate the Tripartite FTA The 8th Tripartite Sectoral Ministerial Committee Meeting of COMESA-EAC- SADC Tripartite took place on 18 June 2018, in Cape Town, South Africa. The meeting comes in the backdrop of a lull by members States in signing and ratifying the Tripartite Free Trade Area Agreement. Launched in June 2015, the Tripartite FTA has so far been signed by 22 out of 27 countries but has been ratified by only three countries against a threshold of 14 to enable it come into force. Alarmed at the slow pace of ratification, the current Chair of the Tripartite Task Force Sindiso Ngwenya, called on the political leadership to address the matter. Speaking during the opening of the ministerial meeting, Ngwenya who is also the Secretary General of COMESA called on the political leaders to take up the matter to accomplish the objective of the TFTA. Regional integration is essentially a political economy project and cannot be left to technocrats who are not subject to penalties as they have unlimited shelf life, he said. As our political leaders who are subject to penalties from voters and the markets, l urge you to take up the mantle to rally all and sundry to traverse the one thousand miles, he said. The time is now, otherwise posterity will judge us harshly for having failed to realize the dream of prosperity for the citizens of the Tripartite region in particular and the African continent in general. He said the launch and the pace of the ongoing negotiations for the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) highlights the significance of the TFTA as a building block for the AfCFTA. This, underscores the urgency of concluding the TFTA negotiations with a view to consolidating and preserving the gains made, for the benefit of Member/Partner States. Launching of the TFTA in June 2015, in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt Regional integration is essentially a political economy project and cannot be left to technocrats who are not subject to penalties as they have unlimited shelf life, he said. Analysts and commentators have attributed the lack of progress to a variety of factors, among them: lack of political will; the absence of a robust institutional arrangement in the form of a dedicated Secretariat with a clear mandate of coordinating Tripartite negotiations. The other is the negotiating principles that gave pride to national sovereignty which is the antithesis of regional cooperation and integration. Way Forward As a way forward, Ngwenya proposed that Tripartite Member/Partner States could fast track the implementation of those functional cooperation projects and regional market integration programs on which there is consensus. This, he observed, is necessary to build mutual trust and confidence. Addressing the same meeting, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa Ms. Vera Songwe, likewise, advocated for a robust Tripartite Secretariat to push the negotiations, provide technical inputs where necessary, lobby at the political level, and lubricate what can be challenging negotiations. She described the Tripartite as strategically relevant to the AfCFTA owing to the synergies between the two regional frameworks. It is clear, for instance, from the negotiated AfCFTA text that the ideas put on paper, and signed by our Heads of State in March 2018, germinated from the good work of the Tripartite negotiators, she said. The shape and structure of the AfCFTA and many of its solutions, from Non-Tariff Barriers to trade remedies, were formed here in the Tripartite negotiations. To ensure such synergies are taken forward in finalizing both agreements and in ensuring their effective implementation, she called for the pooling of resources and efficiency gains. Where the tripartite has already seen successes, these can be emulated on the continental scale, she noted. The Tripartite Non-Tariff Barrier Mechanism is a good example: already over 510 registered complaints in the Tripartite region have been resolved.

3 Two COMESA States Approve Insect Resistant Bt-Cotton for Cultivation It was not easy; however, we knew all along that COMESA has been the most trusted partner to the member States and other biotech stakeholders in handling this controversial and emotive issue of introducing GMO-products in the region, Dr Belay remarked. 3 He observed that the same varieties are being approved in different countries thus creating a good platform for COMESA member States to exchange data and share experiences amongst themselves without looking too far. Sudan is already cultivating the same varieties, JKCH 1047 and JKCH Legislators, regulatory authorities, researchers and other stakeholders from Swaziland, Ethiopian and other COMESA States on a study tour of cotton industry in India, November 2016 The Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and Ethiopia have approved the environmental release of insect resistant genetically modified cotton varieties for cultivation. The Swaziland Environment Authority and the Ethiopian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change granted the landmark approvals in the last one month. The approved Bt-cotton varieties are hybrid types, JKCH 1047 and JKCH Eswatini approved one variety; JKCH 1050 while Ethiopia approved both. Ethiopia has also granted a five-year special permit for confined field trials for drought tolerance and insect resistance maize varieties (Water Efficient Maize for Africa). The adoption by Ethiopia and Eswatini brings to three the number of COMESA member States including Sudan that have adopted biotech crop varieties out of a total of four in the African continent. It is gratifying to see that the demand-driven support from COMESA and its implementing partners finally came to bear fruit in Eswatini and Ethiopia, said Dr. Getachew Belay, formerly Senior Biotechnology Policy Advisor, and now African Plant Biosecurity Network Coordinator at COMESA Secretariat. COMESA, through its specialized agency, the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) supported both Eswatini and Ethiopia in biotechnology/ biosafety policy formulations. Capacity Building In past six years, COMESA conducted awareness and capacity building trainings and experience sharing visits (mainly to Sudan, South Africa, Burkina Faso and India) for parliamentarians, regulatory authorities, researchers, farmers, private sector, media and civil society organizations. It also played a leading role in coordinating activities of other biotechnology/biosafety service providers in these two and other member States. It is gratifying to see that the demand-driven support from COMESA and its implementing partners finally came to bear fruit in Eswatini and Ethiopia, said Dr. Getachew Belay In Ethiopia, the government has identified the textile industry as one of the priority areas for industrial development and job creation where increased supply of cotton raw material with competitive price is needed. The country expects to gain one billion dollars export earnings from textile and garment industry by the end of the second Growth and Transformation Plan in In Eswatini, the cotton industry has been one of the leading industries driving the economy. However, production has been declining owing to pest (bollworm) attack. Smallscale farmers, mostly women, are involved in cotton production and this technology is expected to raise their income earnings. Sudan commercialized Bt-cotton in 2012, and is now reaping the benefits by doubling productivity. More than 95% of the cotton produced in Sudan is insect resistant biotech (Bt) cotton. Research trials on biotech maize, banana, cassava, cowpea, enset, and potato have also been underway in other COMESA member States including Malawi, Kenya, Egypt and Uganda. Dr Belay underscored the importance of documenting the socio-economic changes that will take place after the adoption of such new technologies to ensure that countries at field-trial stages gain more confidence to make well informed decisions.

4 4 COMESA launches the 50 Million African Women Speak Project in Malawi Development Bank which identified challenges impeding women from growing their business. The studies, established that the development of an ICT platform could mitigate some of the gender specific challenges affecting women entrepreneurs, COMESA Director of Gender and Social Affairs, Mrs. Beatrice Hamusonde told the participants. COMESA team and a section of stakeholders who participated in the two-day 50MWS stakeholder engagement in Lilongwe, Malawi. COMESA has successfully launched the 50 support the overall goal of enhanced financial Million African Women Speak (50MWS) inclusion of women, leading ultimately to project, a women economic empowerment increased economic activity in Africa. initiative, in Malawi. This followed engagement between COMESA and stakeholders conducted on June 2018 in Lilongwe, Malawi. Over 30 stakeholders from the Government, Private Sector, NGOs and Women Associations in Malawi participated. The 50MWS is a three-year project funded by the African Development Bank, jointly implemented by three regional economic communities (RECs) i.e. COMESA, East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community for Western African States (ECOWAS) in 36 countries. The objective of the project is to empower women entrepreneurs by providing access to financial and non-financial information necessary to grow business. The project will create a networking platform to connect women entrepreneurs and encourage peer-to-peer learning, mentoring as well as information and knowledge sharing. The platform, will be accessible on ICT gadgets including mobile phones. It will enable women to access business training, financial services and locally relevant business information, and mentors among other services. This will Addressing stakeholders during the official opening of the three-day program, Director in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism Ms. Christina Chatima, underscored the commitment by the Government of Malawi to ensure the project is a success. We are committed and indeed looking forward to the successful implementation of this project. It is our hope that the project will complement some of our interventions aimed at empowering women such as the establishment of the Women Economic Empowerment Platform (WEEP) and the Women Economic Empowerment Fund (WEEF), she said. We also envisage the platform to assist women entrepreneurs penetrate regional market by exporting products such as cabbages, tomatoes and onions given the opportunities presented by the Free Trade Area, she added. The project was conceptualized and designed following a pilot study conducted by the African Similarly, COMESA conducted a study in selected member States on women s access to finance and related services. The study resulted in the establishment of the Women Economic Empowerment Fund, which will be managed by the Trade and Development Bank, one of the COMESA institutions. The COMESA Team, led by Mrs. Hamusonde paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Gender, Children, Disability & Social Welfare, Honourable Dr. Jean Kalirani, who also expressed government commitment to support the project implementation. The Team also met the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism Dr. Ken Ndala, who described the project as timely and beneficial to women and other SMEs in Malawi. Currently, COMESA is engaging Member States to introduce the project, outlining the benefits as well as facilitating the establishment of Project Country Teams at nnational level. The country teams are responsible for gathering information and drafting content to be uploaded on the platform, among other key duties. During the stakeholder engagement in Malawi, the country team comprising of representatives from the public sector, private sector, women associations, local/international organizations and UN Agencies was established. From the 25th -27th of June 2018, COMESA will be engaging stakeholders in Zimbabwe.

5 Over 500 Investors at Malawi Investment forum 5 Over 500 investors from 29 countries across the globe met in Lilongwe, Monday, June 11, 2018 to discuss possible investment deals during the third Malawi Investment Forum (MIF). The Forum is Malawi s leading and most established gathering of international investment community, leading academics and experts showcasing up-to-date information, strategies and knowledge on attracting foreign direct investment into the country. COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya was part of the high-profile delegates who attended the two-day forum, officially opened by President Peter Mutharika. Besides offering a knowledge-based platform with cutting edge information on the latest investment and trade opportunities in Malawi, the event serves as a unique platform to meet, network and exchange experiences, explore business opportunities and sign cooperation agreements and partnerships. According to Trade and Industry authorities, 24 bankable projects were discussed under the Public-Private Partnership arrangement and 18 private sector projects were marketed during the two-day forum. Further, 70 local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were given an opportunity to exhibit their products at the event in a quest to help them find international markets for their products. In his address, Ngwenya observed that investment and trade remain the cardinal undertakings for inclusive development of the COMESA region and Africa at large Much is still to be done in terms of promoting and facilitating our trade and investment because Africa is looking for a more conducive area for investment attraction and business to create jobs and wealth, Ngwenya said. He cited infrastructure, ICT, industrialization, science and innovation, tourism, as some of the sectors that need more investment. The Secretary General further noted that limitations of the existing models of promoting economic growth through cross border and foreign direct investments do not embrace a multi sectoral and inter sectoral approach. Much is still to be done in terms of promoting and facilitating our trade and investment because Africa is looking for a more conducive area for investment attraction and business to create jobs and wealth, Ngwenya said. The projects being considered currently are not aligned to the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy in that they are standalone projects without sectoral linkages that are a necessary condition for economic transformation and inclusive growth, he noted. He proposed that the energy projects should be designed to feed into the national grid as opposed to serving economic activities where they are located. This would be achieved by making investments that are, for example, linked to clusters of agro industries in the rural areas, which will provide jobs for the youth and reduce poverty.