After constructing roads for the past few years, Ngwenya said the regional bloc was ready to look for the much needed Foreign Direct Investment and other forms of investment which have long been a challenge for the region to attract.
The Secretary General was speaking at the third COMESA Investment Forum on 12-13 April 2010 held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The theme for the forum was “Connecting COMESA to the World”.
Ngwenya highlighted some of COMESAs achievements since its establishment. He pointed out that the COMESA regional integration programmes had come of age, as evidenced by the launching of the Free Trade Area in October 2000 and the Customs Union in June 2009. Under the COMESA FTA, the first decade of its existence saw intra-COMESA trade grow from US$3.2billion in 2000 to US$15billion in 2008. This period witnessed product diversification and trade between FTA participating countries.
“There is evidence from investment flows into the COMESA region that the 400 million people and the combined GDP of US$450billion is an attractive emerging market for investors,” he said
The Secretary General added that the region has adopted a non-discriminatory treatment of investors in the COMESA market and protection of investments from exploitation.
Ngwenya revealed that the COMESA Secretariat, in collaboration with Central Banks, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), had built capacities in Member Countries to capture flows on cross border investments. The COMESA Secretariat will publish the first detailed report of the investment flows capturing cross border investment in June 2010.
He added that the third COMESA Investment Forum was timely as it was being held against the background of the historic COMESA, EAC and SADC Tripartite Summit held in 2008 in Uganda which decided that the three Secretariats should work out a programme for the establishment of a grand Free Trade Area from Cape to Cairo.
“To the business community, this grand FTA will be beneficial in that it will provide for uniform policies and regulations governing trade as at the moment the different trade regimes of the three organisations increase the cost of doing business,” Ngwenya said.
Post published in: Economy