Egypt to Chair 21st COMESA Summit on Tuesday in NAC

On Sunday, the Minister of Trade and Industry Nevine Gamea announced that Egypt will chair the 21st Common Market For Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Heads of State and Government Summit in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) next Tuesday.

The theme of this year’s summit is “Building Resilience Through Strategic Digital Economic Integration,” according to the Egyptian minister and COMESA Secretary General Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe at a press conference held in Cairo in preparation for the summit.

The summit this year aims to rally the 21 COMESA member states to safeguard and advance their regional integration agenda using digital platforms to facilitate doing business and enhance their resilience in the face of economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gamea said.

Gamea said that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will take over the chair of COMESA from the president of Madagascar, adding that he will also launch the COMESA Medium-Term Strategic Plan 2021- 2025.

The 21st summit will also review several key reports including economic integration priority issues and the status of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region, the implementation status of regional integration programs, as well as reports on the current COMESA round and the COMESA Business Council, she said.

Gamea stated that Egypt was one of the key economic forces in COMESA, having the largest share of intra-COMESA trade in 2020, with a total of $2.7 billion.

“COMESA is also a promising market for Egyptian exports, which accounted for 20% of exports within the bloc, worth $2 billion, while imports from COMESA amounted to $700 million,” she said, adding the top Egyptian exports to COMESA include plastics, salt, sulfur, lime, cement, ceramics, machinery and electrical appliances, mill products, paper, sugar, soap, essential oils, and perfume.

COMESA Secretary General general Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe explained that the summit comes at a very critical time, especially considering the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic on most of the member states, whose economic performances have declined with the slowdown of the global economy.

Kapwepwe added that those challenges were a motivation for COMESA countries to continue working to deepen economic integration and create a conducive climate for the business community and the private sector, intensifying efforts to boost joint investments in various infrastructure sectors.

She pointed out that the COMESA average economic growth rate hit 5.6 percent in 2019, but fell significantly during 2020 due to the fallout of the pandemic.

She also noted that the International Monetary Fund forecasts a rebound in growth to 4.3 percent this year and 6 percent in 2022, thanks to a worldwide economic recovery driven by vaccination efforts against the COVID-19 virus and a pickup in global demand.

COMESA was founded in December 1994 – to replace the former Preferential Trade Area (PTA) that had existed since 1981 – as an organisation of free, independent sovereign states, which have agreed to cooperate in developing their natural and human resources for the good of all their people.