COMMON MARKET FOR EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

The common market for eastern and southern Africa is an regional economic community in Africa with twenty one member states stretching from Tunisia to Eswatini

COMESA was formed in December 1994 replacing a preferential trade area which had existed since 1981

Headquarters locations : Lusaka , Zambia

MEMBERSHIP: 21 Member states

Official Lnguages: Arabic , English , French , Pourtugese

Members :

COMESA (19) countries include , Burundi , Comoros , Congo , Derm rep , Djibouti , Egypt , Eritrea , Ethiopia , Kenya , Libya , Madagascar , Malawi , Mauritius , Rwanda, Seychelles , sudan , swaziland , Uganda , Zambia and zimbaawe.

Goals :

The main goals of COMESA are to eliminate the structural and institutional weaknesses of member state and to sustained economic development .

COMESA in brief :

Growing togrther for prosperity :

Vision:

To be a fully integrated economic community that is prosperous , internationally competitive and ready to merge into the African economic community .

Mission:

Endeavour to achieve sustainable economic and social progress in all field to development particularly in trade , customs and monetary affairs transport , communication and information ,technology , industry and energy ,gender , agriculture environment and natural resources.

What is the purpose of COMESA?

Promotion regional integration throught trade and the development of natural and human resources for the mutual benfit ofall pepol in the region .

COMESA objectives and priorities:

The history of COMESA began in December 1994 when it was formed to replace the formed preferntial trad area (PTA) which had existed from the earlier days of 1981  COMSA ( as defined by its treaty ) was established as an organ istation of free independent sovereging states which have agreed to co _ operate in developing  threir natural and human resoueces for the good of all their people and as such it has a wide _ ranging series of objectives which necessarily include inits priorties the promotion of peace and security in the region .

However , due to COMESA‘S economic history and background its main focus ison the formation of a large economic and trading unit that is capable of over coming some of the barriers that are faced by individual states .

COMESA‘S current strategy  can thus be summed up in the the phrase economic prosperity through regional integration with 21 members states population of over 583 million a gross domestic product of $ 805 billion a global export / import trade in goods worth US $ 324 billion COMESA forms a major market place for both internal and extwrnal trading

Geographically COMESA almost with two third of the African contirent with an area of 12 Million (sq km)

Agriculture programmes:

Food and Agriculture Market information system(FAMIS)

COMESA is also inmplementing an AFDB funded project on the COMESA   wide food and Agriculture market in formation system (FAMS) the market information program has been boosted by the offer by Egypt to develop a  web – based database to capture business contact information and profile of private sector enterprises in the COMAS region

Anothr key success has been in forging public _ private sector partnership partnership to advocate for and creat  a regional environment that is supportive of open regional agricultural trade , improve export and reduce important restrictions harmonize standards and sanitary and phyto _ sanitary (sps ) requirements across the region for animals and plants products

Blue Economy

Support investment in sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem.

Services: • We promote and support increased investment in diversification of existing ocean-based economic sectors (particularly fisheries, tourism and ports) to realize greater value and efficiency from the existing resource base; • We support exploration and feasibility of new and emerging maritime sectors (for example sustainable fisheries, marine-based aquaculture, tourism); • We support improved prevention of ocean/blue economy risks including illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, marine pollution and climate change through integrated approaches to effective regional cooperation on maritime security.