Current chair of COMESA, Egypt strongly
believes economic integration is the sole path towards development, Samir says.
Zambia- Dec 1, 2022
Minister of Trade and Industry
Ahmed Samir has presided over the 43rd Council of Ministers meetings
of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), held in Lusaka,
Zambia, from 29 November to 1 December.
Over 200 delegates from the 21
member states, attended the event, whose “Building Resilience Through Digital
Economic Integration” theme was motivated by the emerging regional and global
economic challenges which have heavily impacted the bloc’s regional integration
agenda.
“Egypt strongly believes in the COMESA
regional economic integration as the sole path towards development and
prosperity in its nations,” Samir said, stressing the country’s commitment to
cooperating closely with other members to eliminate potential obstacles to this
end.
He added that Egypt, as the current
COMESA chair, works hard to boost its intra-trade, which amounted to $13
billion in 2021, through encouraging deeper cooperation among the region’s
business communities.
According to official figures, Egypt-COMESA
trade hit $4.2 billion last year, with Egypt’s exports at 2.8 billion,
accounting for 22.5% of the bloc’s total intra-trade.