Statement by Mr. Claver Gatete at the 23rd Summit of COMESA Heads of State and Government

Your Excellency Evariste Ndayishimiye, President of the Republic of Burundi,

Your Excellency Hakainde Hichilema, President of the Republic of Zambia and Chair of COMESA Heads of State and Government,

Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government,

Your Excellency, Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union,

Your Excellency, Chileshe Kapwepwe, Secretary-General of COMESA

Your Excellency, Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti, Secretary-General of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States

Your Excellency, Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank

Your Excellency, Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat

Honourable Ministers,

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is an honour to address this 23rd Summit of the COMESA Heads of State and Government, as we convene under the theme: "Accelerating regional integration through the development of regional value chains in climate-resilient agriculture, mining and tourism."

I wish to begin by extending my gratitude to His Excellency, President Evariste Ndayishimiye, for hosting us in the beautiful city of Bujumbura, on the edge of one of Africa's most magnificent lakes, Lake Tanganyika.

This summit holds special significance for the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), where advocacy for greater regional cooperation is a founding principle and core mandate of the organization.

Indeed, we can trace this commitment to continental integration back to ECA's first ever meeting, held in Addis Ababa in December 1958.

At the time, the legacy of colonization weighed heavy and there were only 10 independent member states on the whole continent.

At that first meeting, our member states made a clear and loud request to ECA to support greater policy coordination and cooperation among the newly independent African countries.

Our resolve on the integration agenda has not wavered since then.

Indeed, COMESA has a special place in our institutional memory at ECA because its predecessor, the Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern African States, was the outcome of a decision taken at our 1st Extraordinary Conference of Ministers, which took place in Lusaka in March 1978.

Excellencies

Distinguished delegates,

Since its founding in 1994, COMESA has achieved some remarkable things.

With a combined population exceeding 650 million, a collective GDP surpassing US$1 trillion, and merchandise trade valued at more than US$400 billion, COMESA is a major pillar of Africa's regional integration agenda.

Moreover, COMESA has established policies and institutions which will have a key role to play in the creation of a single continental market, within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

To cite a few examples, the COMESA Competition Authority, established in 2013, was the first regional competition authority in Africa and the second in the world.

In its first ten years alone, it handled over 360 merger cases and investigated 40 cases of restrictive business practices.

COMESA has also created various trade facilitation instruments and financial institutions such as the Trade Insurance Agency, the COMESA Clearing House and the Trade and Development Bank, whose assets have increased from less than US$1 billion in 2012 to more than US$10 billion now. It is our responsibility to grow this bank to facilitate greater investments across the COMESA region and beyond.

Nor can we overlook the momentous achievement of the negotiations between COMESA, EAC and SADC to form the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA).

In July this year, we heard the wonderful news that the Tripartite was coming into force, after the required threshold was reached of 14 ratifications.

This was a remarkable feat of negotiation - and COMESA member states should be warmly congratulated on the achievement.

The economic consequences are likely to be monumental for Africa's development. Collectively, the 3 regional blocs together constitute more than 60% of continental GDP. Three of Africa's 4 largest economies - Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa - are within the Tripartite.

So, in many ways, COMESA can be understood, in both geographical and economic terms, as the backbone of the Tripartite.

As a result, what happens within the Tripartite will have major consequences for the integration of the whole continent.

It is important to remind ourselves that 80% of intra-African trade currently takes place with existing regional economic communities.

Therefore, building bridges between regional economic communities is of paramount importance.

And this leads me back to the AfCFTA. In the preamble to the AfCFTA Treaty, the Regional Economic Communities are designated as 'building blocks', meaning that their best practices and achievements are to be followed and incorporated into AfCFTA implementation.

I sincerely believe this is the best way to deliver on the promise of creating a single continental market.

Excellencies

Distinguished delegates,

Allow me to return to the theme of this conference.

Clearly, we must expand regional value chains if we wish to create a more integrated economy.

This requires not only removing all the barriers to intra-African trade, but also creating the incentives for greater cross-border investment - studies repeatedly show that FDI is a handmaiden of trade.

A 2022 ITC study identified over 90 promising value-chains across the continent.

And greater regional cooperation can definitely stimulate the emergence of such value chains, whether that is through collaborative efforts such as the Zambia-Zimbabwe Joint Agro-Industrial Park, the Southern and Eastern African power pools, or efforts to add value to the mineral sector.

We all know that the demand for critical minerals will rise enormously over the coming decades, and so the question is, is Africa ready to take advantage of this, given its abundance of those critical minerals?

Excellencies,

To sum up, we are clear at ECA that the Regional Economic Communities are the building blocks of continental integration.

We are also clear that COMESA has the institutions, rules and regulations to help accelerate continental integration.

And the numbers support this narrative.

Total exports from COMESA member countries to global markets have nearly doubled since 2022, and intra-COMESA trade has surged by over 70% between 2020 and 2023.

It is also necessary to continue working closely with the AfCFTA Secretariat for better coordination to have maximum impact.

ECA remains committed to providing technical expertise, innovative financing solutions and data-driven policy support.

Together, we can work towards an ever more integrated, resilient and thriving COMESA.

I thank you for your kind attention.

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