Comesa Must Invest $40 Billion Annually for 7 Percent Growth

By Eddyson Lugangwa Posted 08 May 2006 @ 01:14 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

Nairobi (IBTimes.com) - The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has said that the region needs to invest $40bn annually in order to develop infrastructure if the aim of achieving seven percent growth is to be reached.

Secretary General Erastus Mwencha has said that the region would need to invest heavily in the development of road networks, energy, rail and air transport in order to facilitate trade and investment.

Investment of this nature would also dramatically reduce the costs of doing business and living in the region, which could free up money to develop markets for non-essential goods and services.

Comesa said that the European Union (EU) has provided -3.5mn (about $4.3mn) to fund the development of a master plan on infrastructure development in the region.

Mwencha added that Africa has realised that good transportation infrastructure is a necessary requirement for stability, development and trade integration.

Comesa is the largest African economic grouping. The member states are Burundi, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swaziland, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The African Union has called for the rationalisation of Africa's many disparate and overlapping trade blocs and Comesa currently provides the best platform to develop an Africa-wide trade bloc from.