President Hakainde Hichilema attended the 23rd COMESA Heads of State and Government Summit in Bujumbura and handed over the Chairmanship of the COMESA Authority to President Évariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi. The summit, held under the theme, “Accelerating Regional Integration through the Development of Regional Value Chains in Climate Resilient Agriculture, Mining, and Tourism,” saw a renewed commitment to fostering regional economic integration among member states.
President Hichilema highlighted the importance of increasing intra-COMESA trade, which currently stands at a low 12%. He emphasized that Zambia, as outgoing Chair, remains committed to strengthening the regional bloc by supporting agricultural research and productivity initiatives. Notably, under Zambia’s leadership, COMESA’s total export value to the global market saw a significant increase of 210%, from $100 billion in 2020 to $219 billion in 2023.
On the sidelines of the summit, President Hichilema held bilateral meetings with President William Ruto of Kenya and HE Taye Atske Selassie of Ethiopia. These discussions focused on shared interests and strengthening regional cooperation. President Hichilema also took the opportunity to introduce Dr. Samuel Maimbo, Zambia’s candidate for the African Development Bank presidency, expressing gratitude for the support from African leaders. In reciprocity, Zambia pledged its support for former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga as the AU Commission Chairperson.
Returning from the summit, President Hichilema reaffirmed Zambia’s commitment to regional integration as part of the nation’s economic strategy. “Our goal is to make Zambia a land-linked nation, leveraging our strategic position to enhance trade and connectivity,” he stated.
With Burundi now chairing COMESA, and Kenya serving as deputy, Zambia will continue to play a pivotal role as an outgoing member of the COMESA Bureau, supporting the goals and initiatives of the regional organization.
Talk is cheap; let’s see the talk being walked. Meanwhile, our economy is haemorrhaging under crippling loadshedding – with no end in sight.
So ba reporter how did we do as Comesa chair? Can you sontapo and say this is what we achieved? Any innovations we introduced? How did we take Comesa forward?
These are the kinds of questions you need to ask the outgoing chair and the incomer. Not just practicing clerical journalism. That’s what we call reporting from the office bearers’ prepared speech.
Agreed all talk
In all the years nothing much has come of this Comesa
Tikki your reporters just don’t do their job. Comesa has a court of justice (our reporters need to tell us about cases it has handled)
Comesa has a free trade area for the past 24 years of course on region originating products. Five years ago they quashed out their non tariff barriers. They are anticipated to introduce a single currency announced visa free. Journalists should tell us about the Comesa insurance scheme etc
He called on COMESA member States to emulate Zambia’s PPP initiative in road construction. Unfortunately the Zambian version of PPP is a criminal scheme that no sane government would emulate. It took one John Pombe Magufuli to change Tanzania’s economic trajectory and it has now continued to score well above Zambia where puppetry and inside dealing is rife
Time to focus on our country and economy.
Charity begins at home.We have alot of problems at home to sort before we start
Helping comesa.
We don’t have water from Lusaka water and sanitation this morning in PHI and Mtendere, though this seem s to be routine, if reasons were given it would help. Are you back from Comesa sir to help us, especially that ZESCO says they don’t loadshed water installations.
No school for Mtendere kids in Lusaka today, no water
But ba Ntamba Lukuta balepupuka!