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| Mpasu calls for domestic reform |
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by
Gedion Munthali, 16 October 2003
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19:31:28
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The success story of Common Market for Southern Africa (Comesa) must begin with domestic reform in each member state, Commerce and Industry Minister Sam Mpasu said Thursday.
Speaking at the 13th meeting of the trade and customs committee in Lilongwe, Mpasu said Comesa countries must, in their own interest, help and encourage one another in bringing about essential reforms.
“We now know that our economic competitiveness depends in a large measure on what are called governance issues – the integrity and competence of the financial system, the judiciary and the rule of law, transparency of governmental and private transactions, fair and open competition and more equitable distribution of the benefits of growth,” he said.
Noting that these are largely matters of domestic policy with the sovereign right of each nation, Mpasu however pointed out that the situation in one Comesa country “affects us all”, including people’s perception of the region as a whole.
“How business is conducted in one Comesa country tends to affect how the international business community views the rest. This, in a way, is a measure of how integrated the regional economy has become,” he said.
“Whether it is fighting transnational terrorism or ensuring the competitiveness of our economies in a globalising world, what we require today is no less than a change of mindset — to use a modern cliché — paradigm shift. We must think regionally. We must truly believe that our national or corporate or personal interest lies in the destiny of the region.
“We have to cast off the kind of thinking that continues to burden us — the idea that we are good only for the confines of our national boundaries, whose market is to be protected as our preserve, each nation to its own. This will no longer work in today’s world, even if it ever did,” said Mpasu.
He said Malawi is in Comesa, “is with Comesa, belongs to Comesa”, because, in many ways she can better fulfil her aspirations as a nation through collaboration, cooperation and integration with her neighbours to spur economic growth, to protect the environment, to harness technology, to combat terrorism and transactional crime and to expand the understanding of human rights.
“In a world of insecurity and aggressive competition, we know that our individual nations cannot thrive, cannot hope to proper, cannot have confidence in the future, unless they work together, stand together, pool their resources, share more and more of their interests, trust one another and increasingly speak as one in the councils of the world,” he said.
Observing that Comesa is operating in a new, dynamic and rapidly changing environment, with challenges far more complex than encountered before, Mpasu said the grouping must take effective measures to make trade and investments as easy as possible and as inexpensive as possible.
“Investors today look for large integrated markets, with efficiencies and economies of scale that they provide. Investors have much less interest in small, protected ones. Our response to renewed economic adversity should be to deepen further the economic integration of our region,” he said. |
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