Trade portal providing market information to businesses in the COMESA region under execution

AN initiative to promote the use of the African Trade Observatory Portal, which provides market information to businesses in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region is under execution.

This initiative is being implemented by the COMESA Secretariat and COMESA Business Council (CBC) together with International Trade Centre (ITC).

COMESA Secretary General, Chileshe Kapwepwe, said at the COMESA CBC business forum in Lusaka on Wednesday that the project was under the Regional Enterprise Competitiveness and Access to Markets Programme (RECAMP).

“This initiative is helping businesses to exploit opportunities in regional and continental markets. Already, the initiative has supported six capacity building workshops in six COMESA Member States, and we continue to reach out to many more Member States,” Kapwepwe said.

She also stressed the need for Public-Private Sector partnership to increase intra-COMESA Trade.

COMESA Secretariat, she said, was happy to leverage existing COMESA institutions such as the COMESA CBC to increase intra-COMESA Trade through private sector development.

At the same function, Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister, Chipoka Mulenga, said the forum served as a platform to exchange business information, explore trade and investment opportunities and created mutually beneficial partnerships.

Mulenga encouraged participants to build productive capacities to utilise the abundant natural resources and forge partnerships to explore opportunities available.

“Zambia is committed to supporting the economic integration of our region, and of Africa as a whole. We are actively promoting the creation of regional value chains in order to support value addition to our continent’s vast resources.

“One-way Zambia is doing this, is through the establishment of the Zambia and Zimbabwe Common Agro Industrial Park, this cooperation will contribute to regional integration through the development of cross-border value chains in sectors in which the two countries have comparative advantage to transform our raw materials into processed products,” he said.

COMESA CBC president, Marday Venkatasamy, said the forum was expected to hold discussions focusing on the promotion of regional food trade through improved market access, especially from countries with surpluses to countries experiencing shortages.

Venkatasamy said it was also expected to provide a platform to exploit the opportunities that would create smarter, sustainable, innovative, efficient, and profitable businesses in COMESA and Africa at large to develop the region in its entirety.

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