Honourable Rodney Sikumba, Minister of Tourism of the Republic of Zambia and Acting Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry,

You Lordship, Judge Lombe Chibesakunda, President of the COMESA Court of Justice;

Distinguished Delegates from COMESA Member States Your Excellencies Ambassadors and High Commissioners Representatives of COMESA Institutions

Representatives of International Organizations Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my honour and privilege to welcome all of you all to Lusaka, Zambia, the Seat of the COMESA Secretariat and to particularly welcome you to the 45^th Meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee. We consider your presence as a clear demonstration of your commitment and support to COMESA’s integration agenda which we greatly appreciate.

Excellencies; Ladies and Gentlemen,

So far, we have made significant progress in effectively implementing our Mid Term Strategic Plan 2021-2025. The market access preferences we continue to give each other through implementation of the Free Trade Area (FTA) regime is finally paying off. This is evident by the resilience exhibited by our economies in the recent past despite the myriad socio-economic and political challenges. For instance, intra-COMESA export trade held steady at US$14 billion in both 2022 and 2023. In addition, our trade facilitation instruments have greatly helped in overcoming barriers to trade while accelerating intra-regional trade and investments, thanks to Development Partners including the European Union, World Bank, African Development Bank, Afrexim Bank, UNCTAD, WCO, among others for invaluable financial and technical support.

Ladies and Gentlemen 

The benefits we derive from automation and Digitization of Customs procedures & clearance, Electronic Cargo Tracking System, Electronic Certificate of Origin, National Single Windows, Coordinated customs border management and upgrades and the Online Non-Tariff Barriers reporting system are all significant. For instance, studies indicate that Commercial clearance timelines in several border points have reduced from 8-10 days to less than 2 days, passenger clearance times reduced from hours to less than 30 minutes. Such benefits result in an increase of efficiency, reduction of trade costs and ultimately greater competitiveness of our economies.

We have also initiated the Simplified Trade Regime (STR) to support the small-scale cross border traders which constitute significant portions of intra- regional trade and create employment opportunities and income for women and youth. So far 8 countries are employing the STR, namely Burundi, DRC, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

During the 30 years anniversary celebrations, we shall be launching the COMESA Electronic Certificate of Origin (e-CO) in 3 of our Member States, namely Eswatini, Malawi and Zambia. The e-CO has been developed to provide a simple, secure and fully online process to apply, issue, exchange documents, and verify electronic certificates of origin issued in the Member States. The e-CO will make our transactions seamless, efficient, cheaper, safer and more environment friendly.

Guest of Honour, Excellencies; Ladies and Gentlemen 

You will agree with me that the entry into force of the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (TFTA) on 25^th of July 2024 following the threshold of 14 ratifications is a significant milestone of our regional integration agenda. The 3 pillars of the TFTA namely; market integration, infrastructure development and Industrial development reflects the African Union’s Agenda 2063 aspirations for sustainable economic development. In addition, the TFTA addresses the complexities associated with overlapping membership among regional economic communities by presenting best practices in facilitating infrastructure connectivity and value chain development at regional levels.

It is encouraging to note that the EU has availed an additional €12million to, among others, support the domestication of the various Tripartite Road Transport Legal instruments adopted by the 5^th Meeting of the Tripartite Council of Ministers convened in March 2023 under the leadership of COMESA. This timely intervention will support the Market Integration pillar by facilitating transportation of goods and people within the Tripartite Member/Partner States. More will be achieved if the other two pillars of Infrastructure development and Industrial development are equally supported.

Excellencies; Ladies and Gentlemen,

Significant achievements have been made under the COMESA Productive Integration pillar under the various subsectors. Achievements made under the agriculture sub-sector include continued implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), the Digital Regional Food Balance Sheet (RFBS) Initiative and the Regional Strategic Framework and Technical Guidelines.

Under Industry and Private Sector Development, the COMESA Secretariat continued to facilitate the implementation of the Zambia- Zimbabwe Joint Industrialisation Programme, implementing the Regional Enterprises Competitiveness and Access to Markets Programme (RECAMP) and the COMESA Towards Regional Pharmaceutical Sector Development Project.

In our quest to promote investment in the COMESA region and keep up to date with the evolving investment landscape, the COMESA Common Investment Area Agreement (CCIA) is being revised so that it remains relevant and aligned to recent developments.

Excellencies; Ladies and Gentlemen, 

It is common knowledge that our infrastructure in the various economic sub- sectors (i.e. transport, energy and ICT/Telecommunications) is inadequate, both in terms of quantity and quality as evidenced by the existence of missing links and poor quality due to lack of maintenance. This is notwithstanding the fact that infrastructure is universally accepted as a key enabler for both production and distribution. Economic growth and development are therefore negatively impacted upon thereby retarding deepening of regional integration.

This infrastructure deficiency in the region requires consented efforts towards resource mobilization including through Public Private Partnership (PPP) as public funding is not adequate to bridge the infrastructure gap due to other competing national needs.

COMESA transport sector programmes recognize and promote all modes of transport by undertaking activities that promote efficiency, multimodal transport, integrated transport systems and regional connectivity. Thus, the programmes focus on road, rail, maritime and inland water and air transport sub-sectors. These are mainstreamed within the corridor framework where facilitation of corridor efficiency is paramount.

The road sub-sector accounts for over 85% of freight transportation on land and therefore demands particular attention. The focus in the sub-sector has been on promoting corridor efficiency by facilitating development and adoption of regional agreements and facilitation instruments that promote harmonization and regional cooperation. Management of border posts has also been high on the agenda given the delays at border stations and cost implications of the this.

COMESA is leading in the implementation of the Support to Air Transport Sector (SATSD) programme, a programme being implemented in collaboration with other Regional Economic Communities of EAC, IGAD, IOC  and  SADC.  Programme  activities  promote  air  transport  market integration and liberalization within the framework of the Single African Air Transport Market, one of the AU Agenda 2063 flagship projects.

Excellencies; Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Policy development, capacity building and technical assistance to Member States have been facilitated under the $10million World Bank funded Regional Infrastructure Finance Facility (RIFF). In addition, development of new power generation sources and promoting regional power trading among Member States in the COMESA region have remained core areas of focus under the energy sub-sector.

I am delighted to inform the meeting that we have signed a $50million grant financing agreement with the World Bank for facilitating implementation of the $5billion Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation (ASCENT) in the Southern and Eastern Africa Region which was launched in June 2024. This transformative project is an ambitious leap towards universal energy access and the clean energy transition in the Eastern and Southern Africa region. ASCENT is conceived as a comprehensive accelerator of energy access efforts in the Eastern and Southern Africa region, aiming at the delivery of new electricity connections to over 100 million people through both grid- and Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE)-based solutions.

Apart from leading in the implementation of the Enhancement of Governance and Enabling Environment for the ICT Sector (EGEE-ICT) programme, which seeks to promote market competition, public-private partnerships,

effective regulation of internet and mobile operators to promote security, affordability and universal access of services, COMESA is facilitating the implementation of the World Bank funded Inclusive Digitalization for Eastern and Southern Africa (IDEA) under which a grant US$10million was extended to COMESA to coordinate and facilitate the US$2.48billion dollar project to be implemented in some COMESA and non-COMESA Member States.

Excellencies; Ladies and Gentlemen, 

The COMESA Gender and Social Affairs Programmes for 2024 continued to advance gender equality, women empowerment and social inclusion through targeted initiatives. Gender mainstreaming support was extended to a number of projects in the energy, ICT, trade, industry and transport sub- sectors of the COMESA programme.

It is encouraging to note that the COMESA Health Desk became fully operational in February 2024, with the onboarding of a Health Expert and the secondment of a Health Advisor from the Africa Resource Centre.

Excellencies; Ladies and Gentlemen,

Your meeting will receive various Ministerial reports for noting including the reports from various COMESA institutions who have remained an integral component of COMESA’s institutional architecture and expansive footprint actively involved in the advancement of the latter’s regional integration agenda.

Let me take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to all our co- operating partners for supporting our programmes. Their support has made it possible for us to deepen our regional integration through various sector initiatives. In recognition of their contribution, the co-operating partners will be afforded the opportunity to individually deliver their statements during this meeting.

Allow me Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, at this juncture, to wish you fruitful deliberations, as we look forward to your recommendations and guidance on various COMESA issues that are pertinent to the regional integration agenda.

I thank you for your commitment and your participation in this meeting.