Tunisia is officially 20th member of COMESA

Tunisia officially became Wednesday, the 20th member of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), at the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the member countries, held in Lusaka, capital of Zambia.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Khemaies Jhinaoui ratified in his capacity as representative of President Beji Caid Essebsi, the Treaty of Accession of Tunisia to COMESA, in the presence of Trade Minister Omar El Behi.

According to a statement issued today by the Foreign Ministry, Jhinaoui emphasised in a speech read out on behalf of the Head of State, the will of Tunisia entrenched in its African depth and keen to develop complementarity, solidarity and integration to contribute efficiently to boost the action of this important regional group, to give it more influence and to devote the path of partnership and economic and commercial cooperation among the member countries, as part of mutual interest.

The accession of our country to COMESA represents a promising opportunity for the public and private sectors, investors and the heads of industrial and financial companies, for the achievement of partnerships with their counterparts in the rest of the member countries of this important economic group.

The latter is an important market for many Tunisian products and companies active in the fields of basic infrastructure, ICTs, education and higher education, vocational training, health, food industries, engineering, accounting and finance…
Tunisia completes with its COMESA membership, the efforts made since January 2016, by the authorities to join this economic grouping which has 20 African member states and nearly 625 million inhabitants.
The GDP of the COMESA region is estimated at about $ 1.2 trillion, ranking as the largest grouping in the world, with an annual import value of nearly $ 170 billion and exports of $ 120 billion.

This membership will enable Tunisia to automatically join the triangular free trade area formed by COMESA, the East African Community (EAC) and the SADC (Southern African Development Community), bringing together nearly half of the continent’s countries having significant potential for strengthening economic and trade exchanges between African countries.

TunisianMonitorOnline (Source:TAP)

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