Zimbabwe committed to economic regional integration, official

Zimbabwe was committed to playing a part in the economic integration of African states, particularly in East and Southern Africa, The Daily Mirror reported on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe's transport and communications minister Christopher Mushohwe made the remarks when he officially opened a three-day joint meeting of Common Market for East and Southern Africa ( COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) on transport in Harare on Monday.

The meeting's theme is Total Integration of Transport Systems in East and Southern Africa as a basis for the Integration of the African Union.

Zimbabwe recognizes that the integration of East and Southern Africa is a critical step towards the full integration of the AU. Zimbabwe wishes to reaffirm its commitment to the process of the economic integration of Africa and will play its part to ensure its success, Mushohwe said, adding that the process of African integration should be accelerated if Africa was to benefit from the global economic growth.

"The acceleration of the process of African integration is a must. Africa cannot effectively compete on international markets as investors are usually in search of huge markets with policy predictability in the legislative, regulatory and other policy domains," Mushohwe said.

The meeting would deliberate on development of common navigation and airport infrastructure in East and Southern Africa.

Negotiation of guidelines on the provisions and rules of procedure for the applications of the competition regulations and reviewing of co-operation in the road sector, specifically focusing on harmonization of road user charges and multilateral road transport agreements would also be discussed.

Mushohwe bemoaned the failure by the region to complete the implementation of the Yamoussoukro decision of 2000 within the stipulated time frame.

He mentioned that the Zimbabwean government has played its part in fulfilling AU, SADC and COMESA protocols on transport infrastructural development.

Source: Xinhua