PM, COMESA SG BRAINSTORM AFCFTA

MBABANE - Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini and Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) Secretary General, Chileshe Kapwepwe are both optimistic about the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Speaking during their meeting held at Royal Villas yesterday morning, the COMESA secretary general said they had been made aware that Eswatini had shown interest in hosting the AfCFTA Secretariat. She said COMESA supported the AfCFTA.
“We are noticing a lot of progress in the space of regional integration and are looking forward to its progression.

Involvement

“The tripartite free trade area involvement is the framework involving SADC, COMESA and East African community; which we are also pushing towards ratification because it is a building block of the continent,” Kapwepwe said.
She added that COMESA had come up with a focus of three development pillars: infrastructure, industrialisation and market integration.

“We have shared the progression of these three pillars between SADC; which is doing industrialisation and the east Africa community; which is doing infrastructure development and COMESA; which is doing market integration so that we are streamlined,” she said.

The prime minister on the other hand, said the kingdom was working extremely hard to secure the AfCFTA bid; adding that it would mean a lot to the country.

Given

“His Majesty has given this assignment to government to ensure that we do everything possible to secure it. This will not only be good for the kingdom but the whole region. That is why we have full support from SADC,” the PM said.

Meanwhile, both the COMESA Secretary General and the PM congratulated one another for being appointed into office in recent months. Kapwepwe is the first female COMESA secretary general and assumed office in July 2018, while the PM assumed office in October 2018.

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