September 21, 2020: Lower and higher institutions of learning are opening up for educational activities in the COMESA region as the bloc begins to ease COVID-19 restrictions. So far, schools in Egypt, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been opening from the month of August, September and some are set October. Governments…
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The COMESA Business Council (CBC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to strengthen business partnerships for its members in regional and international markets. The event took place during the ICC/World Chambers Federation Action Network Meeting on 9 November 2020. Over 70 business leaders representing business associations from Africa…
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September, 18, 2020: Cross border road transport laws, regulations, standards and systems are set to be harmonized from Cape to Cairo following the endorsement of two anchor Multilateral Agreements and five Model Laws. The COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Sectoral Ministerial Committee on Legal Affairs (TSMCLA) endorsed the Tripartite Draft Legal Instruments on Transport and Transit Facilitation during…
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Lusaka, September 17, 2020: The COMESA Secretariat has developed a draft Medium-Term Strategic Plan (MTSP) covering 2021- 2025 which is geared to support structural transformation of the region and boost overall economic development through trade facilitation and investment promotion. To formulate this new MTSP, the Secretariat used a wide consultative approach with key stakeholders both…
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Lusaka, September 16, 2020: Trade experts from the 21 COMESA Member States met today to review progress on trade negotiations between countries and to review progress towards concluding Trade in Services negotiations. The virtual meeting, which was the 8th for the COMESA Technical Working Group on Trade in Services, considered the complexities prevailing during the…
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September 15, 2020: The power outages being experienced in the Eastern Africa-Southern Africa-Indian Ocean have continued to affect productivity leading to Africa loosing 12.5% of production time compared to 7% for South Asia. This has been attributed to lack of adequate regional infrastructure in energy. Recent studies have shown that many African countries, some of…
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The COMESA Regional Customs Transit Guarantee Scheme (RCTG-Carnet) has launched a Mobile Application to provide access to real-time information to clearing and forwarding agents in the region. The Application is accessible on Google Play Store and Apple Store and provides a one-stop shop for the agents in member countries to view current bond balance and…
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The Federation of Associations of Women in Business in Eastern and Southern Africa (FEMCOM) has changed its name to COMESA Federation of National Associations of Women in Business. This is in line with the correct name which appears in the COMESA Treaty. The new acronym will now be “COMFWB”. The name change happened during…
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Over 50 Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) drawn from various sectors across Zambia participated in a two-day virtual training on capacity building organized by the COMESA Business Council (CBC). Participants were drawn from horticulture sector, meat, dairy and other agro-food industries. The objective was to enable the SMEs to meet the demands of the…
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The government of Eswatini has developed a national Roadmap for the implementation of the COMESA Simplified Trade Regime (STR) as well as the Trade and Transportation Facilitation instruments for the Small-Scale Cross Border Traders (SSCBT). The Roadmap is under consideration by senior management in respective ministries and institutions in the country.. The Roadmap and elated…
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