Late last week ( 4 June) The COMESA Secretary General  Mr Sindiso Ngwenya with the support of the Assistant Secretary General ( Programmes) Mr Stephen Karangizi, received a delegation from UNCTAD comprising the UNCTAD ASYCUDA Programme Senior Coordinator, Mr. Fabrice Millet, and ASYCUDA Regional Coordinator, Mr. Alioune Ciss,  the two organisations discussed  the achievements and challenges of the ASYCUDA system implementations in the COMESA region and map the way forward for future collaboration.

COMESA - UNCTAD relationship, for the implementation of the ASYCUDA system in the COMESA Member States, started some 17 years ago. This long and fruitful collaboration resulted in the adoption of the ASYCUDA system by 15 COMESA Member States along with Namibia and Tanzania which were COMESA members then. The only four countries that have not adopted the ASYCUDA system yet as their Customs Management System in the COMESA region are Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and Mauritius. The Republic of Djibouti s recently requested COMESA and UNCTAD for a feasibility study for possible implementation of the ASYCUDA system in their Customs Administration. ASYCUDA implementation has also a positive impact on other COMESA projects such as the Simplified Trade Regime (STR), Trade for Peace, Cross Border Trading, Trade Statistics, and more recently the development of the Transit Data Transfer Module (TDTM) and its link with the Regional Customs Transit Guarantee (RCTG) system. 

Following this fruitful meeting the two organisations agreed to  further cement this long and fruitful relationship and plan for future collaboration.  Some of the are that shall be explored include-

1. Collaboration on the current development on the Transit facilitation
2. Establishment of an ASYCUDA Regional Centre at the COMESA Secretariat in order to enhance capacity in the region.
3. Availability of the ASYCUDA source codes to the COMESA Secretariat.
4. Implementation within a COMESA Member State a state in the art ASYCUDAWorld system using electronic signature in a paperless environment, thus paving the way to e-Customs and e-Government.
5. Have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organisations that will encompass all areas of interest between them.