By Sarah Munthali

Lilongwe, March 7, Mana: Minister of Trade and Industry Sosten Gwengwe has called on media practitioners in the country to report more on Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) regional integration programmes and their benefit to the country.

He made the call in Lilongwe on Thursday when he officially opened a two-day National Capacity Building Workshop for Media Practitioners organised by COMESA in collaboration with Ministry of Trade and Industry.

He said Malawi has benefitted greatly from various programmes from COMESA, which include trainings for cross-border traders on Simplified Trade Regime, upgrading of the Mchinji-Mwami One Stop Border Post (OSBP), procurement of sewing machines for Blantyre textiles cooperative at MACOHA, and construction of COMESA Cross Border Market (set to commence around July 2024), among others. 

Gwengwe also said small cross-border traders, especially women and youths, are benefitting from the simplified COMESA trade regime where they can go and trade in and out of COMESA countries without hustles.

He pledged government’s commitment in ensuring that local producers have a conducive environment to conquer the local and international markets, citing Kilombero rice and Sobo juice as some products which have penetrated the international markets.

“COMESA has organised this capacity building programme in collaboration with my ministry to give chance to journalists to write more stories and articles about the organisation, the impact the regional bloc has on Malawi, not only on trade, but also on the transport and agriculture sectors,” he added.

Gwengwe therefore said media practitioners in the country need a better understanding of the COMESA regional integration configuration under which Malawi and other state parties operate, if they are to effectively disseminate information on the regional and national development agenda to the general public.

“An enlightened citizenry is a key ingredient in our development process. Therefore, it goes without saying that well-informed journalists also make well-informed decisions. You need to utilise this opportunity to network and get contacts of the COMESA experts so that you can easily cross-check your facts from the right sources whenever you are reporting about our COMESA supported programmes,” explained Gwengwe.

COMESA Secretariat Head of Corporate Communications Mwangi Gakunga said COMESA observed a gap among media practitioners in member states despite conducting regional media trainings, hence changing the strategy to national ones.

“COMESA recognises and acknowledges the media as part of its key stakeholders whose contribution is invaluable to the success of regional integration. It is our hope that once you are done with the training, you become better communicators and ambassadors of the regional integration process at national level.

“This capacity building initiative is important in that it will deepen your understanding of the opportunities that regional integration initiatives present to the economic development of this country and the region,” he added.

Gakunga said Malawi is one of the member states to have implemented many COMESA supported programmes and has many success stories to tell.

COMESA comprises 21 African member states with a combined population of over 600 million people.