African largest trading bloc COMESA kicks off summit in Zimbabwe

by Li Nuer, Song Ying and Tichaona Chifamba

VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The 13th summit of Africa's largest trading group COMESA started in the Zimbabwean resort town of Victoria Falls on Sunday, with the long-anticipated official launch of a regional customs union topping the agenda.

It will be the second crucial step taken by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in its process of economic integration after the 19-member bloc established the first free trading area in Africa in 2000

The important move had been confirmed again by COMESA secretary general Sindiso Ngwenya before the summit. The COMESA chief announced that the customs union will be launched next Monday when the summit came to an end.

"The Common Tariff Nomenclature and the Common Customs Documentation (CCD) are in place and what remains is the COMESA Regional Policy still under negotiation," he had said.

At the opening ceremony of the summit, outgoing chairman of COMESA Authority, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki gave a report on progress made since the last summit in Nairobi in 2007, including the movement towards harmonization of policies between COMESA and the other economic blocs of the Southern African Development Community and the East African Community towards an African Economic Community.

He said he was encouraged by the fact that intra-COMESA trade had 52 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up from three billion dollars the previous year.

"As we collectively position ourselves to ushering the next milestone on our regional agenda, let us also remain fully aware of the broader agenda on the integration of the African continent. It is necessary that we focus on the bigger picture by strengthening our relations with other regional blocs," Kibaki said.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni thanked the Zimbabwean political leadership and people for coming up with an inclusive government and averting a potentially serious conflict. He also said COMESA should push for first world status and look at how it can take advantage of the current global economic crisis.

"We need to find how best we can survive and even how best we can take advantage of it," he said.

Vice Chairman of African Union Commission Erastus Mwencha decried the fact that although Africa was represented at the last G20 summit, it was still to remove a stimulus package as pledged there.

He stressed the need for Africa to consolidate its strategies with climate change, whose effects he said could affect the lives of its citizens.

The customs union aims to lift tariffs among member states while harmonizing barriers with third parties through the Common External Tariff, which the community's heads of state and government adopted in May 2007.

With the theme of "Consolidating Regional Integration through Value Addition, Trade and Food Security", the summit followed a meeting of the Council of Ministers from Tuesday to Thursday and talks of COMESA foreign ministers on Friday and Saturday.

The summit, which had originally been set for last year, has been postponed twice. The COMESA made a put-off decision first to allow the host country Zimbabwe to complete its electoral process which finally gave birth to the formation of an all inclusive government.

The meeting was later postponed again as organizers took into account the need to begin the process of implementing the decisions of the summit of three trading blocs held in Uganda last year regarding the harmonization of Free Trade Areas and common external tariffs.

COMESA, headquartered in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, was formed in 1994 to replace its forerunner, the Preferential Trade Area. It enjoys an aggregate population of about 400 million and combined GDP of over 360 billion U.S. dollars.

Backgrounder: Basic facts about
COMESA

Backgrounder: Brief introduction about
COMESA authority and chief

Backgrounder: Brief introduction about
Zimbabwe

SCO, BRIC summits to focus on global financial crisis: Russian analysts

MOSCOW, May 28 (Xinhua) -- The summits of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO) and the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China)
scheduled for next month in Russia will provide the participants with a platform
to discuss measures to tackle the global financial crisis, Russian analysts said
on Wednesday.

The SCO member states should further enhance coordination in working out
policies and measures amid the global economic downturn, Mihail Delyagin,
director of the Russian Institute for Globalization Problems, told Xinhua.

Russia, among other countries, proposed the creation of new international
reserve currencies during the G20 summit in London in early April, Delyagin
said.

The sides could discuss the proposal within a bilateral or multilateral
framework at the upcoming summit, which will also be conducive to preparation
for the next G20 summit, said the expert.

Discussion about the merits and flaws of the measures adopted to deal with
the financial crisis should be given priority at the BRIC summit, said Igor
Nikolayev, director of FBK Strategic Analysis Department.

The BRIC countries have many topics to talk about against the trend towards
world multipolarizaiton, Nikolayev said.

Special Report:
Global Financial
Crisis

EU summit ends with concrete steps to boost employment

PRAGUE, May 7 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) leaders and representatives from European labor unions and employers' organizations wrapped up here their one-day employment summit on Thursday after agreeing 10 concrete steps to protect and boost employment amid the global financial crisis.

After more than two hours of discussion, they agreed the actions including plans to keep as more people as possible in employment through temporary working hours adjustment, lowering non-wage labor costs and improving the efficiency of national employment services.

The 10 proposals serve the basis for the measures expected to be approved by EU employment ministers and EU leaders in June.

The 10 actions will be implemented at national and European level with the cooperation with social partners.

With unemployment in the 27-nation bloc forecast to rise to nearly 10 percent this year, the EU needs effective instruments to tackle the problem, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek told a press conference after the summit. His country holds the current EU presidency.

He urged for structural reforms "which in the future could help limit the impact of the crisis and would contribute on the creation of jobs."

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that the EU has put employment as the objective No.1.

"With this employment summit we are telling our citizens that we want their employment to be Europe's objective number one," he said at the press conference.

"We all know, we must succeed on employment because there can be no economic recovery on the foundations of social collapse, just as there can be no social progress in an economic desert," he said.

Barroso said the employment summit "increases strongly the chances that we will succeed and this summit generated concrete ideas. They can in particular give hope to young people facing the daunting prospect of finding their first job."

Participants of the meeting also called for cooperation and coordination in enhancing jobs between the EU, governments of member states, and social partnerships, such the trade unions and businesses.

Barroso described the summit as "a significant step towards more and better coordinated action on employment."

"Europe is not only an economic and political project, it has always been and will always be a social project as well," he stressed.

They also discussed anti-protectionism at the summit.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of Sweden, which is to take over the EU presidency in June, stressed that protectionism is "never the solution" if the EU is going to achieve long-term recovery of the labor market.

"We have to preserve free trade and competition. These are very important to our economy," he said.

Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, president of Business Europe, said that "anything smells of protectionism" must be fought back urgently.

Spanish Employment Minister Celestino Corbacho urged EU governments to encourage continuous training of workers and promote inclusive labor markets.

"Only on the basis of coordination and social dialogue can we achieve our intention of coming out of this crisis with a more competitive, innovative, more sustainable and fairer economy," he said.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, will build on the summit's discussions while formulating proposals to be submitted to the EU summit in June.

EU summit ends with concrete steps to boost employment

PRAGUE, May 7 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) leaders and representatives from European labor unions and employers' organizations wrapped up here their one-day employment summit on Thursday after agreeing 10 concrete steps to protect and boost employment amid the global financial crisis.

After more than two hours of discussion, they agreed the actions including plans to keep as more people as possible in employment through temporary working hours adjustment, lowering non-wage labor costs and improving the efficiency of national employment services.

The 10 proposals serve the basis for the measures expected to be approved by EU employment ministers and EU leaders in June.

The 10 actions will be implemented at national and European level with the cooperation with social partners.

With unemployment in the 27-nation bloc forecast to rise to nearly 10 percent this year, the EU needs effective instruments to tackle the problem, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek told a press conference after the summit. His country holds the current EU presidency.

He urged for structural reforms "which in the future could help limit the impact of the crisis and would contribute on the creation of jobs."

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that the EU has put employment as the objective No.1.

"With this employment summit we are telling our citizens that we want their employment to be Europe's objective number one," he said at the press conference.

"We all know, we must succeed on employment because there can be no economic recovery on the foundations of social collapse, just as there can be no social progress in an economic desert," he said.

Barroso said the employment summit "increases strongly the chances that we will succeed and this summit generated concrete ideas. They can in particular give hope to young people facing the daunting prospect of finding their first job."

Participants of the meeting also called for cooperation and coordination in enhancing jobs between the EU, governments of member states, and social partnerships, such the trade unions and businesses.

Barroso described the summit as "a significant step towards more and better coordinated action on employment."

"Europe is not only an economic and political project, it has always been and will always be a social project as well," he stressed.

They also discussed anti-protectionism at the summit.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of Sweden, which is to take over the EU presidency in June, stressed that protectionism is "never the solution" if the EU is going to achieve long-term recovery of the labor market.

"We have to preserve free trade and competition. These are very important to our economy," he said.

Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, president of Business Europe, said that "anything smells of protectionism" must be fought back urgently.

Spanish Employment Minister Celestino Corbacho urged EU governments to encourage continuous training of workers and promote inclusive labor markets.

"Only on the basis of coordination and social dialogue can we achieve our intention of coming out of this crisis with a more competitive, innovative, more sustainable and fairer economy," he said.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, will build on the summit's discussions while formulating proposals to be submitted to the EU summit in June.

Official: Kuwait summit serious step towards establishing Arab economic bloc

KUWAIT CITY, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The General Union of
Chambers of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture for Arab Countries said here
Saturday that the first Arab economic summit slated to be held on Jan. 19-20
will be a serious step to boost efforts to establish an Arab economic bloc.

Adnan Al-Qassar, Chairman of the union, made the
remarks in a speech at the inauguration of the "Private Sector and Civil Society
Forum" held ahead of the Arab economic summit.

Al-Qassar told the forum that achieving the economic goals of Arab countries required a thorough Arab vision that put in mind the collective needs of all countries.

Kuwait's Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah addresses the opening ceremony of a forum on Arab private sector and civil society in Kuwait City, Kuwait, Jan. 17, 2009. (Xinhua Photo)
Photo Gallery

The upcoming Arab economic summit, which would focus
on the global financial crisis, infrastructure in the Arab world and social
issues, provides chances of forging common action, said the official.

Al-Qassar voiced hope that the summit would take
serious decisions toward an Arab free trade area, the establishment of a customs
union by 2015, and founding a joint Arab market by 2020.

He emphasized the importance of dealing with
obstacles facing the transportation sector, setting policies for combating
unemployment, encouraging investment, supporting industries and projects, and
achieving Arab food security.

He also underscored the significance of unifying tax
and economic systems, improving the environment for joint Arab projects,
studying the possibility of establishing a fund to compensate countries that
would be harmed by integration.

The official called for developing infrastructure to
activate trade and investment among Arab countries especially in the fields of
transportation, communication, roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, ports, energy,
electricity, gas and agricultural projects.

Arab countries should approve a joint policy to keep
track of concepts related to economy, technology, and knowledge, Al-Qassar said.

The two-day Kuwait summit, the first one initially
designed to be devoted to economic issues, also adopted the Gaza crisis on the
agenda, according to Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.

The Arab economic summit has not lost its economic
nature because of discussing the tragic situation in the Gaza Strip, which has
been under intensive Israeli offensive for the past three weeks, said Moussa on
the sidelines of Saturday's forum.

Arab economic summit to discuss Iraq's reconstruction process

Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

KUWAIT CITY, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Foreign
Minister Hoshyar Zebari said here Thursday that the first Arab Economic,
Development and Social Summit, to be held in Kuwait on Jan. 19-20, will include
a discussion on Iraq's reconstruction process, the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
reported.

Zebari made the remarks upon arrival at the Kuwaiti
capital to represent his country at an Arab foreign ministers meeting on Friday.

He said the Iraqi government "is making determined
efforts to encourage Arab countries and investors to invest in the
reconstruction process which will serve the interests of all partners."

He hailed that the historic Arab economic summit is a
timely event to enhance cooperation and economic integration among the Arab
countries amid the ongoing world economic recession.

The two-day Kuwait summit is the first for the
22-member Arab League to exclusively devote to Arab economic, development and
social matters. The summit is expected to map out steps to improve Arab nations'
economic and social development and strengthen Arab economic integration.

Following the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has so far killed some 1,077 Palestinians and wounded over 5,000, the Gaza war is expected to top the agenda of the summit. Arab leaders are expected to review the latest developments in the Palestinian enclave, and to find a solution to end the Israeli attacks which began on Dec. 27 last year.