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Sikhulekelani Moyo, Business Reporter

EGYPTIAN President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, would take over as chairperson of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) when his country hosts the organisation’s 2021 Heads of States and Government Summit later this month.

This year’s summit will be held on November 23 and comes three years since the last convention that was held in Lusaka, Zambia in July 2018.

Usually, the country hosting the summit assumes the chairmanship of the 21-member organisation for the year.

“The President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, will take over the chair of the Comesa Heads of State and Government from the outgoing chair, Andry Rajoelina, President of Madagascar who took the authority in 2016,” said Comesa in a statement yesterday.

“The authority is responsible for the general policy direction and control of the performance of the executive functions of Comesa and is elected for an agreed period of time.”

The new theme for the forthcoming summit is: “Building Resilience Through Strategic Digital Economic Integration”. It is motivated by the emerging regional and global economic and trade dynamics, which have impacted heavily on the Comesa regional integration agenda, such as the Covid-19 Pandemic.

This year’s focus is expected to rally member States on how to safeguard and advance the Comesa regional integration agenda using digital platforms given the uncertain nature of shocks, said the bloc.

Normally the theme runs for a year from one summit to another. However, the hosting of the summit has not followed a regular pattern since 2016 leading to the unprecedented five-year long running theme and the five-year term run for the authority. – @SikhulekelaniM1