Regional states should strengthen existing value chains both at the regional and global level and develop new ones to unlock the transformative potential in manufacturing and industrial sectors in COMESA. This will enable the region to fully participate in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) while keeping pace with changing production and consumption patterns both globally and regionally.

This was among recommendations made at the 8th COMESA annual research forum conducted from 13 – 16 September 2021. This recommendation is part of the strategic interventions to fast-track the recovery process from the COVID-19 pandemic that has negatively affected trade.

The forum further called for enhanced economic diversification in the region, maximizing on gains made in other sectors in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. These include financial services (mobile money and banking services) and telecommunications, the game-changing initiative in the AfCFTA and Afreximbank’s Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS).

According to the forum’s report, leveraging digital trade will generate adequate jobs and ensure transparent, simple, coherent and business friendly rules of origin, which are key to supporting intra-regional trade both in COMESA and across the African continent.

Besides, digitalization of trade instruments will further support economic diversification through adoption of e-trade, e-logistics, and e-legislation under the COMESA Digital Free Trade Area initiative, as well as promoting the diversification of markets for COMESA imports and exports.

The theme of the forum was “Rethinking Trade and Doing Business in the Wake of Covid-19 Pandemic”. Participants from the academia, policy think tanks, government and private sector attended representing the following countries: Burundi, DR Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.