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Archive -Seychelles

Seychelles hosts Comesa digital free trade area workshop |17 January 2018

Forty delegates from 17 of the 19 Comesa countries will be present in Seychelles for the Comesa Digital Free Trade Area workshop, starting tomorrow at the Savoy Resort & Spa.

Among the delegates will be ministers and principal secretaries. Two directors from the Comesa secretariat will also be present and those are the directors responsible for trade and information technology (IT).

Seychelles will be represented at the workshop which will be attended by the Comesa director responsible for trade, by officers from the department of information communication and technology (DICT) and the department of trade.

The opening speech will be delivered by Vice-President Vincent Meriton, who also holds the ICT portfolio in government.

In its drive to promote regional integration in the area of trade, the Comesa Council of Ministers approved the action plan for the implementation of a Comesa Digital Free Trade Area (DFTA) in its 36th session.

The DFTA initiative is one which aims to make use of information communication technology (ICT) to promote and ease regional trade. The main objective of this initiative is to help Comesa traders/small and medium enterprises (SMEs) export their products within Comesa member states and globally with ease with the aim of increasing exports with the bloc. It seeks to provide traders/customers with the necessary digital tools and infrastructure they need for enhancing intra trade among Comesa member states and global trade.

The implementation of the DFTA implies putting into practice concepts of e-trade, e-logistics and e-legislations. Comesa has also implemented a number of tools related to these. These include: the Electronic Certificate of Origin (eCOR), Comesa Online Markets (CEMES), Comesa Virtual Trade Facilitation (CVTFS specifically transit cargo tracking system), Regional Cargo Transit Guarantee System (RCTG) and the Comesa Yellow Card System (YCMIS).

The workshop is the first to be undertaken as part of the DFTA implementation process and its key objective is for member states taking part to work on their country level implementation plan.

Delegates will be familiarised with the DFTA concept and the Comesa trade facilitation instruments developed so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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