Nation Reporters And Afrol News
22 October 2008
Nairobi — Major African economic blocs on Wednesday signed an agreement to accelerate creation of an ambitious 527 million economic community.
This will be the largest on the continent, spanning Cairo to Cape Town, with Nairobi at the centre. At maturity, citizens will move freely within the member countries.
The agreement in Kampala by chief executives of the three regional trading blocs draws a roadmap for an ambitious pan-African project.
Including Southern African Development Community (SADC), East African Community (EAC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa, the historic project seeks convergence of trade and investment regulations in the three trading blocs as well as the free movement of persons.
Areas of co-operation include exchange of information and expertise and mobilisation of resources for implementation of activities of common interest and capacity building.
The signing is seen as commitment to creating a free trade area among three blocs with a combined population of over 527 million people and combined GDP of $624 billion.
Speaking at the opening of tripartite summit on Wednesday, President Mwai Kibaki said African countries needed integration to face realities of globalisation.
He said countries have recognised that individually, they were poorly equipped to compete on the global marketplace.
"The decision we took to form regional economic blocs was therefore simply dictated by the existing realities at the time...We have now come to a point where it is evident that our regional economic groupings must come together to craft a trading bloc that reflects the new dynamics," noted president Kibaki.
Further, it would accelerate the continent's dream of African Economic Community.
"The tripartite summit provides an opportunity to establish a cooperation framework and create an environment in which millions of people can be lifted out of poverty," Mr Kibaki added.
Tripartite summit has brought delegates from 26 member states from three blocs who will discuss matters related to enhancing cooperation among EAC, COMESA and SADC, three of the eight regional economic communities, recognised under AU conventions as the building blocks for the African Economic Community (AEC) and continental unity.
Also on agenda of the summit are issues of multiple memberships in the three communities.
The tripartite summit is considered as historic because for the first time, since birth of AU, key building blocs of AEC are meeting on how to integrate territories and moving towards deepening and widening integration as envisaged by the Abuja Treaty for the establishment of AEC.
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