Your Excellencies, Permanent Secretaries. the Secretary General of COMESA.

Your Excellencies Ambassadors and High Commissioners accredited to the Republic of Zambia and Permanent Representatives to COMESA.

Representatives of International and Regional Organizations.

our Co-operating Partners here present. Heads of COMESA Institutions;

members of staff of the secretariat; distinguished delegates;

Ladies and gentlemen 

Good morning! 

Let me begin by welcoming you all to the city of lusaka, the headquarters of the common market for eastern and southern africa (COMESA). i thank you all for your participation at this 45th meeting of the COMESA inter-governmental committee that is being held under the COMESA 2025 theme “accelerating regional integration through the development of regional value chains in climate resilient agriculture, mining and tourism’.

Permanent secretaries, ladies and gentlemen,

as we are coming to the end of 2024, it is a significant year in the history of COMESA, which marks its 30th anniversary in december. we will be celebrating three decades of existence, in which COMESA has made giant strides and registered remarkable achievements. i am aware of the challenges that the region has faced due to the impact of covid 19, the recent climate change disasters that some of member states have experienced and how these have impacted on the regional integration effort. i am, however, glad for the resilience that the region has manifested as we navigated these challenges. notably, the value of COMESA’s total exports to the world significantly increased by 210% from us$ 100 billion in 2020 to us$ 219 billion in 2023, while the value of intra-COMESA total exports increased by 40% from us$ 10 billion in 2020 to us$ 14 billion in 2023.

Permanent secretaries, ladies and gentlemen, 

Allow me to highlight a few of the milestones achieved in the last thirty (30) years of COMESA’s existence:[

• Under the market integration pillar, i am aware that COMESA has continued to implement various trade facilitation programmes including implementation of small-scale cross border trade initiatives, and use of electronic tools to ease management and processing of documents and enhance cross-border trade and investments. you will agree with me that the world has moved to use of icts and digital tools, especially during and after covid. COMESA and its partners have not been left behind from embracing digital trade. initiatives such as the online ntb reporting and monitoring system, the electronic certificate of origin, and the digital platform for women in business are critical in this digital all these initiatives related to digital trade and need to be commended. i call upon member states to support these initiatives.
• At the regional and continental levels, COMESA has played an instrumental role towards the realization of the tripartite free trade area and the african continental free trade area. with regard to the tripartite free area, significant progresshas been achieved with the coming into force of the agreement on 25th july 2024 after the threshold of 14 ratifications was attained. the tripartite provides additional opportunities for market expansion, industrial development and huge investment opportunities through value addition and greater connectivity through infrastructure development.
• Trade facilitation and production initiatives are supported by infrastructure development and transport facilitation i am aware that COMESA is spearheading economic infrastructure development, a critical factor for the smooth flow of trade, building productive capacities, lowering production costs and cost of doing business and ultimately fostering sustained economic and inclusive growth and human development in our member states. indeed, infrastructure development is critical in linking major inland markets, seaports as well as connectivity for land linked countries.
• Adequate generation, stable and secure supply of energy is critical to industrialization of the region. as such, COMESA supported development of renewable energy resources and supporting the operationalization of the eastern africa power pool (eapp) to facilitate regional electricity trading. the recently introduced world bank funded accelerating sustainable and clean energy access transformation (ascent) programme will be transformative and very instrumental towards the achievement of universal energy access and the clean energy transition in the eastern and southern africa region.
• productive capacity: the COMESA region continues to make significant strides in enhancing productive capacities across agriculture, industry, and trade to drive sustainable development and economic growth. efforts to strengthen regional agro-food systems through the comprehensive africa agriculture development programme (caadp) and the digital regional food balance sheet (rfbs) have been instrumental in improving agricultural productivity, addressing food security challenges, and facilitating informed decision-making for both public and private sector actors. complementary initiatives, such as the development of irrigation strategies, strategic food reserves, and sanitary and phytosanitary (sps) measures, have further supported food safety, trade competitiveness, and attracting more private sector investments in the agricultural sector. additionally, progress in controlling animal pests and diseases has contributed to increased intra- regional trade in live animals and animal products.
• Beyond agriculture, COMESA’s industrialization agenda has focused on empowering smes and fostering regional value chains. the zambia-zimbabwe joint industrialisation programme is advancing agro-industrial integration, while the regional pharmaceutical sector development project is strengthening pharmaceutical production and governance frameworks. programmes like recamp and tcmap are enhancing sme competitiveness, market access, and sustainable practices in high-priority value chains. investment promotion initiatives, including the revised common investment agreement (ccia) and the ease of doing business roadmap, underscore the region’s commitment to improving the investment climate and facilitating value chain development in the COMESA region. these achievements, complemented by advancements in the blueeconomy and climate change adaptation, position COMESA as a dynamic hub for regional integration, economic transformation, and sustainable development.
• On gender and social affairs, COMESA has made significant strides in advancing gender equality and social affairs across its member key achievements include the development of the COMESA gender policy, which mainstreams gender into regional programs and policies, and the establishment of initiatives to empower women in business, such as the 50 million african women speak platform, providing a digital space for women entrepreneurs to access financial services, markets, and mentorship. furthermore, the organization has facilitated capacity-building programs and promoted gender-sensitive approaches to regional integration, contributing to social inclusion. the COMESA federation of women in business provides targeted support for women in business to enhance productivity and market access. these efforts underscore COMESA’s commitment to building a more resilient, equitable and prosperous region.
• Governance, peace, and security: COMESA has made progress on several fronts and continues in its earnest efforts to help member states address peace, security, and governance needs. the support has focused on conflict prevention, management, post conflict reconstruction, youth peace and security and anti-money laundering and curbing of financing terrorism. whilst we are proud of the progress made, the region continues to face dire peace and security breaches. this is particularly true for the sudan, eastern democratic republic of congo and somalia. in  addition,  climate  change  has  been posing  non-traditional threats with related shocks increasing in frequency and severity, such as the droughts that have afflicted the southern region and the floods that have hit the eastern region. these challenges need our collective engagement and support for the region to build long term resilience.
• Resource mobilisation: i am informed that since 2020, the secretariat has mobilized technical and financial resources from various development partners. these include the european union, the world bank, the african development bank (afdb), the united nations, the alliance for a green revolution in africa (agra), among many these funds are all assigned to support various development projects and programmes in the common market.

As our economies are still recovering from the impact of covid 19, pandemic, the insurgence of the russia-ukraine conflict and the persistent climate change disasters in the region have exacerbated the shrinking of the fiscal space in our member states. to ensure that there is predictable and sustainable financing, a comprehensive resource mobilization strategy must be expeditiously finalised while considering a number of options, including the market levy. i have been informed that this will discussed by our experts and presented to us next year. therefore, we need to support our secretariat in finding sustainable means to financing our regional integration agenda and call for continued support from our cooperating partners to build on the wins that COMESA has made over the years.

Permanent secretaries, ladies and gentlemen,

Indeed, as we mark 30 years of regional integration, our achievements cannot be be insignificant. the COMESA of today has evolved over the past 30 years. our countries are more vibrant, with increased cross-border trade, improved infrastructure and industrial activities and an overall positive trend in socio- economic development. COMESA is poised to become fully integrated, internationally competitive regional economic bloc.

I wish to conclude by thanking you, permanent secretaries, ladies and gentlemen, for being part of this journey of making the COMESA what it is today. it will be remiss of me not thank the secretary general for steering a dedicated and enthusiastic secretariat that has supported this reality.

As i conclude, i would like to emphasize that this meeting provides an opportunity to take stock on the COMESA programmes for the consideration of the council of ministers. we have a comprehensive agenda before us in which we will deliberate key issues in regional integration agenda, and i therefore call you to be candid in the deliberations.

I thank you all for your attention and wish you a successful meeting!