6TH SUMMIT OF THE COMMON MARKET OF EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA (COMESA)

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs

23 May 2001

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr NC Dlamini Zuma is in Cairo attending the 6th Summit of COMESA on behalf of President Thabo Mbeki. An invitation to President T Mbeki to attend the Summit was received from the previous Chair of COMESA, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Mauritius. The President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak as the incoming chair and host of COMESA also extended an invite to President T Mbeki to attend the Summit. Today, Minister NC Dlamini-Zuma will deliver a statement on behalf of the President.

South Africa is not a member of COMESA. SADC Council of Ministers decided in Blantyre 1997 that SADC and COMESA should co-exist as two separate organisations, and that they should cooperate on a region to region basis. SADC/COMESA cooperation is governed by a Protocol on relations between the African Economic Community (AEC) and the Regional Economic Communities (REC's), which serves as an instrument and framework for closer cooperation, programme harmonisation and coordination, as well as integration among the REC's.

The members of COMESA are: Angola, Burundi, Comoros, DRC, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

COMESA as a Regional Economic Community (REC)

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa was founded in 1993 as a successor to the Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern Africa (PTA), which was established in 1981. COMESA formally succeeded the PTA on 8 December 1994 with the aim of strengthening the process of regional economic integration, which had been initiated under the PTA, in order to help member states achieve sustainable economic growth. The objectives of COMESA are:

To attain sustainable growth of the member states by promoting a more balanced and harmonious development of its production and marketing structures.
To promote joint development in all fields of economic activity and the joint adoption of macro-economic policies and programmes to raise the standard of living of its peoples and to foster closer relations among its members states.
To cooperate in the creation of an enabling environment for foreign, cross-border and domestic investment and in the joint promotion of research and adaptation of science and technology for development.
To cooperate in the promotion of peace, security, and stability among the member states in order to enhance the economic development in the region;
To cooperate in strengthening the relations between the common market and the rest of the world and in the adoption of common positions in international fora; and
To contribute towards the establishment, progress, and the realisation of the objectives of the African Economic Community.
To establish a Free Trade Zone (FTZ), united customs community by 2004.

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