TUNIS - Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Chileshe Kapwepwe, who is visiting Tunisia from June 29 to July 3, said Tuesday that the mission aims to strengthen Tunisia’s participation in the regional bloc and bring COMESA institutions closer to Tunisian stakeholders, with the goal of boosting trade, investment, and business partnerships.

Speaking at a press conference following a lecture at the International Diplomatic Academy of Tunis, Kapwepwe said COMESA, which comprises 21 member states with a population of more than 680 million and a combined GDP of about US$1 trillion, is holding two major events in Tunisia.

The first, the COMESA Institutions Awareness Forum brings together the Secretariat and several specialised COMESA institutions operating in areas, including trade finance, reinsurance, competition, monetary affairs, leather and leather products, women's entrepreneurship and energy regulation.

The COMESA Secretary General said representatives of these institutions have spent the past two days presenting their activities to public and private sector stakeholders in Tunisia to increase awareness of the opportunities available through COMESA membership and encourage greater Tunisian participation in the regional market.

Kapwepwe added that the next two days will be dedicated to the COMESA Women in Business Forum and Trade Fair, during which women entrepreneurs from across the bloc will showcase their products and engage in business-to-business meetings with Tunisian companies.

"We are hoping that they will be able to see all the products coming from the other 20 COMESA member states that will be on display," she said, noting that the participating businesswomen had already arrived in Tunisia and were ready to launch the forum and exhibition.

Kapwepwe also said she held talks with the Minister of Trade and Export Development and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad on advancing Tunisia's participation in COMESA since it joined the organisation in July 2018.

She noted that Tunisia's exports to the rest of the common market have recorded significant growth, expressing hope that the current engagement would further strengthen commercial exchanges and enable Tunisia to fully benefit from its membership.

Kapwepwe said discussions also focused on aligning Tunisia more closely with COMESA's objectives, particularly through greater use of innovation and technology to develop trade partnerships, facilitating the movement of business people to promote business-to-business cooperation, and modernising border infrastructure.

Referring to Libya as Tunisia's nearest COMESA member state, Kapwepwe said the two sides discussed modernising the Tunisian-Libyan border to support the development of regional trade corridors and facilitate the seamless movement of goods and people.

"We have had very fruitful initial discussions and we look forward to making sure that these elements are developed even further so that we can come up with more concrete steps forward," she said.

Kapwepwe stressed that COMESA's ultimate objective is to increase intra-COMESA trade, strengthen Tunisia's commercial relations with the rest of the bloc and raise awareness among government institutions, the private sector, and the wider public about the opportunities offered by COMESA membership.

 

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