ACP regional organisations

20 countries are members of the Common Market Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), namely: Angola, Burundi, Comoros, DR Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

COMESA strategy so far has been to emphasis the integration of the economic space through removal of trade and investment barriers. Although COMESA has made good progress using this approach, and will continue to pursue it, the focus in the next decade and beyond will shift towards development integration. This will mean giving increased prominence to the supply side of integration, namely investment in the productive sectors. This shift in emphasis recognises developments both at the global and regional level. Globalisation in general and trade liberalisation under WTO in particular is pushing countries to remove trade barriers and open up their markets. Regionally, COMESA trade and investment promotion programmes have improved the investment environment making it more attractive for investment in the productive sectors.

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