IRELAND, COMESA REVITALISE COLLABORATION

MBABANE - The Government of Ireland and COMESA Secretariat are said to have begun engagements to identify potential areas of future cooperation to boost their mutual relations.

The Common Market for Easter and Southern Africa is made up of 21 African countries including Eswatini. Last week , the Head of Mission of the Irish Embassy in Zambia Pronch Murray and the Secretary General of COMESA, Chileshe Kapwepwe held a virtual meeting during which they discussed potential areas of partnership.

Further

“Ireland has supported the COMESA Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) particularly in the development of seed certification systems and had the potential of further up-scaling,” COMESA said. Other potential areas of collaboration are in mitigating the socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on member States and the promotion of digital technology and innovation to facilitate intra-COMESA trade.

Key in this priority would be the development of COMESA Digital Free Trade Area to promote trade through ICT platforms and tools to replace paperwork and need for physical contacts. Another potential area of support is women’s participation in regional trade particularly on improving their access to information and collection of gender disaggregated data.

“Murray observed that the Irish mission in Zambia is accredited to COMESA hence  enabling more robust interactions on potential cooperation. He said the Irish embassy’s 2022 – 2026 strategy, which is expected to be finalised before the end of this year, also provides an opportunity to chart the way forward for the embassy programmes in Zambia and COMESA.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: