 Malawi foreign affairs officials have confirmed the attendance of Mutharika at the summit which will for the first time bring together the 26 countries of the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Mutharika will be among 14 heads of state which include Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe at thesummit under the theme: Deepening Comesa-EAC-SADC integration, to be held at the Commonwealth Resort Munyonyo. The summit will discuss economic and trade liberalisation and trading arrangements among the three communities.
The leaders will also tackle infrastructure development and connectivity in terms of energy, railways, roads, and Information and communication technology.
In addition, the heads of state will debate how to promote free movement of people, starting with business people, among the three communities.
The three regional communities are considered building blocs to the African Economic Community and the African Union the continent is striving for.
They are already implementing regional integration programmes in trade and economic development, through the establishment of free trade areas, customs unions, a monetary union and common markets.
One of the main challenges facing the three blocs is the overlapping membership.
Four member states of the East African Community, including Uganda, are also members of Comesa.
Tanzania, on the other hand, is not a member of Comesa but belongs to SADC.
Assistant Secretary General of COMESA, Stephen Karangizi, said the three regional communities were building blocks to a single economic community for Africa.
As we are aware, poverty is pernicious and widespread in the continent, and the onus for its elimination rests on us, he said.
The regional economic communities have a responsibility of spearheading continental integration and the elimination of poverty, said Karangizi. There was, therefore, need to harmonise policies, he stressed.
History will judge us harshly if we continue to duplicate efforts and programmes, waste resources and opportunities and fail to make tangible progress in our quest to develop our countries and rid the continent of its not-so-honourable tag as the continent of the world’s poor.
According to world statistics of 2006, the three blocs have a combined population of 527 million people, representing 57 per cent of Africa’s population.
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