The European Union has offered €85 million in grants to facilitate regional economic integration over the next five years. The funding will go to three main economic blocs; the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Corporation (SADC) is expected to help reduce costs incurred in cross-border trade. The grant funding agreement was signed in Lusaka, Zambia as Amb. Alessandra Mariani, new EU head of delegation and special representative to COMESA, presented his letter of credence to COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya. The funding will go on up to 2020, with beneficiaries being the COMESA Secretariat and the Member States, including the private sector which will also be helped to enhance their capacity to deepen regional integration. “The EU funds will increase private sector participation in regional and global value chains through improved investment or business climate and enhance competitiveness and productive capacity,” Amb. Mariani said. The EU diplomat acknowledged the advantages derived from a solid regional integration as well as the obstacles and difficulties that may be encountered in the process. “We are more than happy to share with you what has worked and why it has worked in our own analysis from the political and economic point of view as well as from the point of view of citizens to whom the regional integration process has always been relevant and beneficial.” He said national ownership was central to effective integration hence it was important to enhance visibility and understanding amongst politicians and ordinary citizens of the regional integration process and what it actually entails. Ngwenya reiterated that the EU remained the leading cooperating partner for the implementation of COMESA’s regional integration agenda. “With support from the EU, COMESA has recorded key achievements including the expansion of the COMESA Free Trade Area leading to more countries joining the FTA,” he said. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
