Wallace Ruzvidzo
President Mnangagwa has pledged to consolidate COMESA’s vision of an integrated and competitive region.
Speaking after taking over the chairmanship of the regional bloc from Kenyan President William Ruto at the 25th COMESA Summit of Heads of State and Government in Mt Hampden this morning, President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe will build on the bloc’s founding principles and advance intra-regional trade and industrialisation.
“I take over the mantle with deep humility and a profound sense of duty,” he said.
President Mnangagwa expressed gratitude for the confidence shown in Zimbabwe’s leadership and thanked President Ruto for steering COMESA with purpose and clarity over the past year.
He said it is important for COMESA’s founding principles to be followed, noting that exports from intra-COMESA trade had risen from US$2 billion to more than US$14 billion.
The growth, President Mnangagwa said, demonstrates the value of regional cooperation.
He said Africa’s God-given natural resources remain critical to the continent’s growth and development.
The President went on to call for African economies to industrialise and derive greater value from their resources.
Zimbabwe’s message to Africa, said the COMESA Chairman, was that the continent’s endowments must industrialise its economies.
