The Prime Minister, Pierre-Damien Habumuremyi, has traveled to Kinshasa, DR Congo, to attend the 17th Summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) Heads of State and Government, his office announced today.

The two-day summit, due from February 26-27, is expected to deliberate on the status of implementation of the Comesa Free Trade Area, progress on the implementation of the Comesa Customs Union and the Comesa-EAC-SADC Tripartite Agenda.

Peace and security, infrastructure projects, agriculture, environment and related sectors will also be on the agenda.

At the summit, the bloc’s current chairperson, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, is expected to hand over chairmanship to the host, DR Congo President Joseph Kabila.

The previous summit, in November 2012, was hosted by Uganda under the theme, ‘Enhancing Intra-Comesa Trade through Micro, Small and Medium, Enterprises Development’.