Secretary-General, Mr Sindiso Ngwenya, has held various interviews with both local and international media, and highlighted COMESA’s achievements, challenges and opportunities for the future.
“COMESA in particular and Africa in general, need serious investors in the areas of infrastructure and energy as these two are crucial for any development to take place,” he said. He called on the media to widely publicise the forthcoming Africa Global Business Forum slated for May 2013 where Africa’s potential and natural resources will yet again be showcased. He was in Dubai to meet various stakeholders to finalise preparatory works for the Investment forum.
He told the media that Africa has seen tremendous improvement on issues of governance and macro-economic stability and was, therefore, ripe for huge investments.
“We currently have an infrastructure deficit of US $90 billion for Africa and US $42 billion for the COMESA region annually. This shortfall requires us to establish new links, improve existing ones and periodically maintain our infrastructure,” he said. Mr Ngwenya concluded that COMESA’s market integration strategy has continued to produce positive results, and added that trade between the United Arab Emirates and COMESA region, excluding oil, is in excess of US $5 billion annually.