Jun 22

Single integrated market initiative approved by Seychelles

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A declaration has been signed by the government of Seychelles has signed to launch negotiations for establishing a single integrated market for the 26 countries of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The declaration was signed after the conclusion of the 2nd Comesa-EAC-SADC tripartite summit. The summit was held on June 12 in Johannesburg, South Africa, under the theme “Deepening Regional Integration”. A Seychelles delegation lead by Vice-President Danny Faure took part in strategy discussions and endorsed the plan of action at the event.

Mr Faure, who is not only Vice-President but also the Minister for Finance and Trade, said: “This landmark initiative is an important step towards simplifying trade in the region and easing some of the administrative obligations for countries like Seychelles, who are members of more than one of these regional economic communities”.

Setting up a tripartite free trade area will provide a possibility to create a larger, integrated market with a combined population of approximately 700 million people, effectively creating the largest free trade area worldwide. This will encourage intraregional trade by establishing a wider market to increase investment flows, enhance competitiveness as well as develop cross-regional infrastructure.

It should be noted that the initiative is the response to a call from the African Union for regional economic communities to harmonise and better coordinate policies and programmes, which includes contributing to poverty reduction, economic growth and sustainable development for the continent.

Also, the summit adopted a roadmap for the setting up of the free trade area, with phase 1 due to be achieved by 2015.

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