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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 May - 2 June 1999 Issue No. 431 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 May - 2 June 1999 Issue No. 431
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Living Features Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Talking politics for business
By Dina Ezzat
For nearly a decade, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has ignored a provision in its charter that provides for this primarily economic alliance's involvement in political matters. But the situation is changing now.
The many conflicts raging in Africa have underlined the fact that, if it does not address political issues properly, COMESA cannot achieve economic growth, not to mention prosperity, for its seriously underdeveloped member-states. A case in point was Angola, which, due to serious political and military strife, failed to attend this week's summit in Nairobi.
"We cannot achieve our [economic] objective when there is no peace in the region, and when brother is rising against brother in wars that destroy the productive capacity [of our countries]," Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi said in his inaugural address to the fourth COMESA summit. He added that the "maintenance of peace and security is a critical ingredient for development".
Although Moi was not alone in making this argument, his plea for greater political involvement did not receive unanimous support. Some participants showed evident disinterest in turning to COMESA for answers to their internal political disputes. An adequate number of participants, however, appeared to agree that it would be unrealistic to talk about a "rewarding" COMESA free trade area by October 2000 when several member-states are walking out, and when about half of the current 20 members are engaged in political and military conflicts.
Obviously, there is no way to avoid bringing these disputes to COMESA conferences. At the Nairobi summit, speakers from the Great Lakes region became engaged in a fairly overt exchange of accusations over territorial expansionism.
On the other hand, the fence-mending between Egypt and Sudan was also brought to the summit, as Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa spoke about the prospects of steady, even speedy, progress in bilateral relations.
According to a Sudanese source, "this is a good example of the way COMESA should be able to serve the political interests of its member states. As Egypt and Sudan make progress in overcoming the differences of the past few years, a meeting that is spontaneous in nature between President Bashir and Foreign Minister Moussa should serve to boost the ongoing efforts to improve bilateral relations."
Egypt, the newest member of COMESA, is willing to confine business to economy alone, should this be the wish of the majority of member-states. But what Egypt's delegation to the summit suggested was greater political involvement -- enough, at least, to make conducting business among member-states more risk-free.
Moussa, who led Egypt's delegation to the summit, proposed that the security issue should be given prominence on the alliance's agenda. Accordingly, he called for an annual meeting of COMESA foreign ministers for deliberations on all COMESA-related concerns, with an eye on promoting peace and security. His proposal was approved by the summit.
Nevertheless, trade and economic issues remained at the centre of discussions. The two-day conference, which ended Tuesday night, dealt with the establishment of a COMESA Agency for Investments, encouraging inter-COMESA business contacts, compliance with tariff cuts, cooperation with the World Trade Organisation (WTO), debt relief and fighting administrative corruption.
The most pressing objective now appears to be the improvement of inter-COMESA transport. As Namibian President Sam Nujoma eloquently put it, "one has to fly to Europe to come back to an African neighbour."
When the fifth COMESA summit convenes in Cairo for the first time in 2001, these economic objectives should have been achieved. "One can see a commitment to the realisation of these targets," commented Erastus Mwencha, the COMESA secretary-general. (see p. 10)
