COMESA ONLINE TRADE PLATFORM GOING LIVE SOON

MBABANE – The COMESA Online Trade Portal will soon become a reality.

COMESA is the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and it is a free trade area with 21 member States stretching from Tunisia to here in Eswatini. According to a correspondence copied to this publication, at least 18 out of 21 COMESA member States have so far been nominated focal point persons to be responsible for management of the COMESA Online Trade Portal and coordinate with national stakeholders to compile information needed to update the live platform at the country level.

Approved

The platform was approved by the council of ministers in May 2020, but activation delayed owing to slow pace of nomination of the member States focal points. The platform is expected to serve as a business facilitation solution for the region during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the platform, countries will be able to share information on availability of products and their potential to produce and supply different types of goods. This is especially the case for essential products and food supplies as well as connecting buyers to suppliers of goods, thereby promoting and fostering regional intra-COMESA trade. “The platform will also be ideal for small-scale crossborder traders and SMEs to have access to market information and linking producers, sellers and buyers,” reads the correspondence. Speaking at the opening of a webinar on the platform for the COMESA/member States last Thursday, Assistant Secretary General for Programmes, Dr Kipyego Cheluget urged the remaining countries to complete the nomination process.

Restore

“We are concerned about the slow pace of implementation of this activity despite its potentials to restore businesses and create the much-needed jobs in our region,” Dr Cheluget said. “Further delays only amount to increasing the devastating effects of the pandemic.” He added that member States needed to take ownership of the platform due to the great potential to support increased intra-regional trade not only during the pandemic and beyond. In the last four months, the Secretariat has trained all the nominated focal points and also provided demand-driven capacity building to ensure are well equipped to manage and coordinate implementation of the platform at national level. This is aimed at ensuring that multiple stakeholders, including private sector players can use the platform.

Platform

According to Dr Cheluget, the successful implementation of the platform is an important step towards realisation of COMESA Digital Free Trade Area initiatives. He called on the business fraternity in particular to take advantage of the platform to showcase their products to the wider region using digital trade solutions. Participants were taken through the functionalities of the platform, roles and responsibilities of member States/stakeholders including the businesspeople. Meanwhile, Eswatini also launched its own trade and information portal late last year.

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