68 million euros will be used for implementing trade facilitation and small-scale cross border trade, a development by  Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and United National Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The two have have launched a co-delegation agreement to implement trade facilitation projects in the Comesa region.

Under the agreement, Comesa delegates to UNCTAD the design and development of national and regional Trade Information Portals (TIPs) and the Customs Automation Regional Centre (CARC). The TIPs will facilitate easy access to essential trade information in one platform while the CARC will support technical and functional training on the Automated System for Customs Data (Asycuda) World Platform thereby improving skills to develop and use applications.

UNCTAD Secretary General Mukhisa Kituyi said the success of Comesa as the regional organisation would influence regional integration and the deepening integration through trade. “In no way are we going to downplay the centrality facilitated in trade, not only as a way of making Africa competitive but also overcoming the challenges particularly of landlocked countries on the continent which faces the daunting task in competitively trading with the rest of the world.” said Kituyi, as it was noted that Malawi will be a beneficiary of the TIPs.