COMESA goes on THE 14TH Summit for the Heads of States of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) took place this week in Mbabane, Swaziland. The two-day meeting aimed at evaluating the progress made by the region towards implementing its customs union by 2012 and further deepening trade integration. "The meeting is also a significant opportunity to reflect on the fundamental question of why integrate in the first place," said Swazi Prime Minister Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini speaking at the COMESA Council of Ministers meeting held prior to the summit. The summit focussed on examining the tripartite cooperation between COMESA, the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community, and how the region can enhance the use of science and technology for the benefit of its people. Egypt, which joined COMESA in 1998, was represented by Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid. During the summit, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe handed over the chairmanship of COMESA to Swazi King Mswati III. COMESA's current membership stands at 19 countries namely: Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Congo, Djibouti, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros and Swaziland. The bloc boasts a combined population of over 400 million people and a combined GDP of $450 billion. Jittery businesses BUSINESSES are not overly optimistic about future growth prospects, a recent survey finds out. "Growth expectations for the upcoming six months are slightly lower compared to the past six months," says the July edition of the biannual Business Barometer produced by the Egyptian Centre for Economic Studies. "The Barometer reviews the opinion of 474 firms regarding the overall performance of the economy and their own activities during the first half of 2010 and their outlook for the second half of the year. Respondents include firms from the manufacturing, construction, tourism, transportation, communications and financial sectors. The Barometer report showed that 51 per cent of surveyed firms anticipated higher economic growth during the second half of 2010 compared to 55 per cent for the first half. "Relatively more firms expected decreased economic growth, production and domestic sales for the remainder of the year," said the report. "Perceptions are less positive as the general sentiment in the previous survey that the global crisis had ended was curtailed by the Greek crisis and the fear of possible contagion risk," said the report. The Greek crisis spurred persistent fears of a large-scale European crisis. And that, the Barometer said, could have had an effect on the perception of firms due to Egypt's strong trade relations with Europe. It pointed out that Italy and the UK are two major trading partners of Egypt, accounting for 14.8 and 5.5 per cent of total Egyptian exports respectively. During the first six months of 2010, fewer firms reported more positive perceptions about economic growth compared to the last six months of 2009 (21 per cent versus 26 per cent of firms). And more firms perceived lower growth trends (32 per cent versus 28 per cent of firms). But the report's authors suggest that perceptions regarding economic growth may be too pessimistic, seeing that Egypt's growth has surpassed expectations. The report noted that, "Egypt's real GDP growth in the third quarter of fiscal year [FY] 2009/10 registered 5.8 per cent, much higher than the corresponding quarter of FY 2008/09 [4.3 per cent] and also higher than the rates achieved in the last two quarters (4.6 per cent and five per cent, respectively)." Perceptions aside, surveyed firms were sure about the difficulties they face in business. According to the survey, the prime problem is bureaucracy and difficult government agencies. That was followed by insufficient skilled labour, insufficient capital and insufficient demand. These complaints, the Barometer said, were similar to those in the previous survey, except that bureaucracy moved up in terms of priorities. "Clearly education, privatisation and structural reforms should be geared towards addressing these constraints going forward,"l the report said.
