ADDIS ABABA, June 5 (AFP) - Ethiopia, which will this year assume the presidency of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), on Wednesday vowed to strengthen the trading bloc's role within the new African Union, to be launched in July.
"The role of COMESA in creating the African Union is decisive. Ethiopia has pledged to do her level best to strengthen the organization," the Ethiopian government said in a statement published in the official press.
The key organs of the African Union (AU) will be launched in South Africa from July 8 to 10, replacing the 53-nation Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
The new pan-African body, which will eventually have an executive arm, a central bank, a monetary fund, a parliament and a court of justice, will be geared towards African economic integration, just as 20-nation COMESA focuses on regional economic integration.
According to Addis Abeba, COMESA's biggest challenges are the fight against HIV/AIDS, infrastructure development and the search for peace and stability.
COMESA held a summit meeting held last week to promote its free trade area (FTA), which, although launched in October 2000, still comprises just nine member states.
The free movement and trade of goods and service is guaranteed in the FTA, made up of Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
At last week's summit meeting, other COMESA member states were strongly encouraged to join the FTA, within which goods and services produced in one country are traded on a zero-tariff basis in any other.
COMESA comprises a potential market of 340 inhabitants and a total GDP of 170 billion dollars (185 billion euros).
Its members are Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, the Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, the Union of the Comoros and Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Tanzania withdrew from COMESA in September 2000.
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