HH Welcomes Heads of State to COMESA Summit

This morning we welcomed Heads of State, Government and delegates at the 22nd Comesa summit, in Lusaka.

We accepted the chairmanship of COMESA, which we view as a vote of confidence in Zambia.

We thanked the outgoing Chair, His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt, and commended him for the achievements of COMESA under his leadership. These are the building blocks that we will set COMESA members to implement the free trade area and trade among ourselves.

This Summit captures our collective desire to see the COMESA region thrive based on the resolve to adapt, evolve, and integrate our economies while considering global, multilateral and regional developments.

We implored member states to harness the collective resource endowments of our land mass of 12 million Square kilometers and a population in excess of 580 million people.

More people-to-people relations, no-stop borders between our countries and friendly tariffs are key ingredients to

springboard more intra- Africa trade which stands at a paltry 17%.

The stability, peace and security in our region is key. Which is why we agreed that dialogue and diplomacy are a prerequisite to settling disputes.

Let’s change the narrative by working closely among the member states, towards attaining economic integration for a thriving COMESA that builds wealth and prosperity for all our peoples.