Secretary-General, Mr Sindiso Ngwenya, on Wednesday 21 March 2012 received letters of credence from the Norwegian Ambassador to Zambia, Ambassador Arve Ofstad, who is also the Special Representative to COMESA.
At the ceremony, Mr Ngwenya noted that the deployment and presence of the Norwegian government in the region is testimony to the commendable, permanent commitment that the Norwegian Government has made to Africa in general, and the COMESA region in particular.
He pointed out that the Norwegian Government has been a supporter of a number of programmes in the region.
“Allow me to mention the following, in 2010, Norway allocated 1.1% of its Gross National Income for Official Development Assistance (ODA). The contribution is among the highest per capita contributions in the world and our region has greatly benefited from that,” he said.
The Secretary-General said COMESA has since 2008 benefitted from the NOK 17 million (US $ 2.5 million) for the development of the highly acclaimed Climate Change Initiative with an additional US $1 million allocated towards the same initiative in 2010.
He appealed to the Norwegian Government to expand the areas of collaboration to include oil production, fisheries and small and medium enterprise development.
Ambassador Arve Ofstad said his government will continue to be a development partner with COMESA and other Regional Economic Communities like the East African Community (EAC), the International Conference of the Great Lake Region (ICGLR) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) especially in the areas of regional, economic and political integration.
“I believe that strong integration of infrastructure, together with active trade policies and mutually beneficial investments supported by close political interactions, are important features that help accelerate development in the region for the benefit of the people.”
“However, there is need for the RECs to work towards simplifying the procedures at border posts as it takes too much for people to cross the border and for businessmen and women to clear their goods due to the long and tedious process at many crossing points in the region,” he said.
He said the removal of these long procedures at borders will result in an efficient region where people will find it cheap and easier to do business.
“Even today after years of effort, it still takes days for trucks to cross borders among Member States and the amount of paper work required is too much, which makes the process very slow,” Ambassador Ofstad said.
He added that these factors hamper economic development in the region and there is, therefore, need for COMESA and other RECs to work towards harmonizing the border procedures to enable people to move freely.