Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 28: President Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika arrived in Ethiopia Saturday to attend the 18th Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Summit.
Mutharika will join other heads of state and government to discuss issues affecting the continent’s development.
The President who was accompanied by the First lady Madame Gertrude Mutharika, was welcomed at Bole International Airport by Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister George Chaponda and Minister of Industry and Trade Joseph Mwanamveka, who were already in Addis Ababa for other meetings that feed into the main summit.
Malawian ambassador Designate to Ethiopia Chimango Chirwa, Malawi High Commissioner to Zambia and COMESA David Bandawe, as well as Ethiopian senior government officials together with COMESA secretariat were also at the airport to welcome President Mutharika.
From the airport, President Mutharika and the first lady left for Sheraton Hotel, where they were presented with a garland of flowers by Rose Msowoya and Emmanuel Chinyama.
Welcoming the President at Sheraton Hotel was Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati, Malawi delegation to COMESA and Members of the Addis Ababa Mission and their spouses.
The Comesa summit, whose theme is: “Inclusive and Sustainable Industrialization” is expected to attract 19 Heads of State and Government from east and southern Africa.
On Monday, the President and the First lady will attend a State Banquet hosted by the Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia His Excellency Hailemariam Desalegn.
The President will also hold bilateral meetings at the African Union Headquarters.
The summit will comprise nine sessions, including Administrative and budget committee meeting, Ministers of foreign affairs meeting, Business forum meeting, and First ladies roundtable meeting, among others.
The first ladies roundtable meeting will discuss the prevailing challenges women entrepreneurs are facing in the COMESA region and propose possible solutions.
The summit is also expected to discuss peace and security in the sub-region and seek solutions to the challenges as well as address key issues of negotiation on economic partnership agreement with Europe Union (EU).
The summit will also discuss last year’s achievements and progress made by COMESA and look into the implementation status of the various relevant COMESA agreements.
On Friday, the 20th of March saw the commencement of the 34th Meeting of Administrative and Budgetary matters addressing the COMESA budget with focus on Member States assessed contributions. Progress on the acquisition of a machine readable travel document for COMESA staff was presented.
The Intergovernmental Committee Meeting brought together Permanent Secretaries and Principal Secretaries from Ministries responsible for COMESA matters or regional integration in the Member States. In the three days of closed meeting, the Committee handled the bulk of work of the policy organs.
The Council of Ministers also convened on 26 and 27th March 2015 to usher in the 18th Heads of States and Government’s Summit which will kick-off on Monday (30 March, 2015) and expected to end on Tuesday (31st March 2015).
Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia Hailemarim Desalegn will take over the chairmanship from Prime Minister Joseph Kabila of Congo to serve as chairperson until the next summit
COMESA was formed in December 1994 to replace the former Preferential Trade Area (PTA) which had existed from the earlier days of 1981.
It was established as an organization of free independent sovereign states which agreed to co-operate in developing their natural and human resources for the good of all.
The 19 countries of COMESA include Malawi, Burundi, Comoros, DR Congo, Djibout, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia , Zimbabwe, Libya and Madagascar.
Comesa is a regional economic community with an estimated population of about 600 million and a combined GDP of close to US$1 trillion.
It is Africa’s largest regional trade bloc. Zimbabwe and Malawi recently launched the Comesa simplified trade regime as a means of facilitating and formalizing small scale trade between the two countries.
Mutharika told the press ealrier in the day on departure at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe before departure that the summit was of particular importance to Malawi because “we are going to discuss how we can enhance industrialization and expand our markets within the COMESA region.”
He said that at the two-day conference, he was expected to deliver his maiden speech in which he would outline initiatives that Malawi had put in place in efforts to enhance industrialization.
The President was seen off by Vice President Saulos Chilima and a host of government ministers and other senior officials.
He is expected to return to Malawi on Monday.
