BLANTYRE (Maravipost)—President Arthur Peter Mutharika will this Saturday, 28th March 2015, leave for Addis Ababa in Ethiopia where he will attend the 18th Heads of State Summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa-COMESA.
The summit will take place from the 30 – 31March, 2015. Mutharika will depart Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) around 11 o’clock in the morning, according to Gloria Masanza-Kanyang’wa, State House Press Officer.
The first activities of summit are the 34th COMESA policy organ meetings and two ministerial summits then it will be concluded by the summit of heads of state and government from March 30-31.
The theme for the summit is “Inclusive and Sustainable Industrialization”.
The 19-member regional bloc aims to achieve sustainable economic and social progress through increased co-operation and integration in all fields of development particularly in trade, customs and monetary affairs but still facing some challenges to implement the essential agreements on these issues.
The nineteen countries of COMESA are: Burundi, Comoros, D.R. Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
COMESA established in December 1981 as a preferential trade area for Eastern and Southern Africa, (PTA) in Lusaka and then transformed into the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, in 1993 in Kampala.