‘Regional integration programmes pick pace’
THE Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) says its regional integration programmes have picked pace despite the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic due to adoption of technology by member States.
According to a recent performance update by the Comesa secretariat, there has been an upward trajectory in programme activities in the second quarter of the year as restrictions on movement of people in the region eases.
“These have been made possible through the adoption and application of Information, Communication Technologies (ICTs), which have built the organisation’s resilience to implement its programmes.
“Amid the prevailing Covid-19 situation, the implementation of the Comesa regional integration programmes has picked pace, with a notable consistent budget absorption under member States funding on operational expenditures,” said the 21-member trading bloc in which Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Rwanda are part of.
Comesa has convened more than 10 meetings in the first-half of the year, that brought together technical experts and ministers from various sectors including trade, industry, agriculture, energy, transport, ICT among others.
The ministerial decisions informs the implementation of programmes at the regional and national level.
Comesa secretary general Ms Chileshe Kapwepwe, during a recent administrative and budget committee meeting, said:
“At the secretariat, we continue to harness the power of ICT through teleworking to deliver on our mandate while safeguarding the health of our staff amid the current third wave of the Covid-19.”
She attributed the regions’ resilience to some of the measures put forward by the relevant authorities at national level and through the enforcement of regulations developed by the Comesa secretariat, aimed at facilitating safe cross border trade in goods and services.
On the other hand, Comesa co-operating partners have continued to honour their obligations and have extended most projects timeframes to allow the programmes to improve their budget absorptions.
Comesa, through the secretariat has also continued to innovate modalities of implementing programme to increase budget absorption during these extended project timeframes.
Major development partners such as the European Union have allowed Comesa to administer its funds using the internal systems and structures after having assessed and found them satisfactory. —chronicle.c.zw
