Egypt and COMESA discuss ways to improve joint economic cooperation



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(MENAFN – Daily News Egypt) Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Nevine Gamea, held an extended videoconference with Chileshe Kapwepwe, Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

Gamea affirmed the Egyptian government’s interest in fulfilling all its obligations to all regional and international economic organizations and meetings. This fulfillment of the Egyptian side is to support the group in the maximum performance of the roles that have been entrusted to them.

The minister said that Egypt supports COMESA’s efforts to address the repercussions of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) on intra-trade movement and the movement of goods and individuals between the assembly countries.

He noted that the COMESA Secretariat should encourage the remaining seven COMESA member states that have not yet acceded to the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) to do so.

The TFTA is a proposed African free trade agreement between COMESA, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC).

Gamea said Egypt was one of the first countries to sign the TFTA agreement and have its Parliament ratify it. This is due to the agreement that aims to liberalize intra-regional trade, facilitate the movement of goods and individuals, and facilitate the movement of transport between countries on the continent.

The minister pointed out that the Egyptian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA) will launch the platform “50 million African women speak” on November 18 in cooperation with COMESA, the EAC and the Economic Community of the States of West Africa (ECOWAS). .

He noted that this platform will contribute to providing distinguished services for women entrepreneurs in Africa, while activating their sustainable development role in the African economy.

For his part, Kapwepwe highlighted the importance of Egypt in supporting COMESA and in activating its role in promoting trade and joint investments among the member states of the grouping.

He added that the Extraordinary Ministerial Council of COMESA approved a series of precautionary measures to face the repercussions of the global health crisis on the economic cooperation system between the countries of the assembly.

This included precautionary measures specifically targeting long-distance truck drivers. It also saw the creation of an information platform to provide all the data on basic services and basic goods to activate the electronic commerce system between COMESA countries.

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