Thursday, March 28, 2024

Zambia seals Deal to produce COMESA Passports

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Permanent Secretary Dr Chileshe Mulenga
Permanent Secretary Dr Chileshe Mulenga
The COMESA Secretariat has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Zambian Government for the production of COMESA Passports also known as Laissez Passer.

The Zambian Government, through the Ministry of Home Affairs, will print new machine readable passports for staff of the COMESA Secretariat and its institutions.

The passport have been printed in line with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) requirements.

COMESA Council of Ministers recently had mandated COMESA to work on having the machine readable Laissez Passer replace the old manual version.

Speaking at the execution of the MoU, Ministry of Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Dr. Chileshe Mulenga revealed that the government is committed to producing good quality passports in line with international rules and regulations related to air travel.

“We have a modernized system of printing passports so we can assure you for a good, efficient and timely job,” He added.

Dr. Mulenga disclosed in the Statement obtained by ZANIS this evening that the Government of Zambia will meet the cost of producing the new passports while COMESA Secretariat will contribute 20 percent of the total cost.

Meanwhile COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya commended Zambia for hosting thousands of refugees from the region for many years without seeking help or complaining about the noble service.

“We are extremely happy to be hosted by the Government and people of Zambia in this country which has been an oasis of peace since independence.

” It is renowned for having a friendly population, harmony and for its stability. It’s a true honor to be based in this country,” he noted.

15 COMMENTS

  1. Laissez passez is only synonymous with United Nations. Anything else is immitation in my opinion.

    Having read this also – I am struggling to see how it benefits zambia. Is it from the price of the passport ?

    Thanks

    BB2014

  2. It is good to make changes, but in Zambia the problem is the way change is implemented. I hope you will not be giving deadlines for people to change passports. It is good to think through some of these changes before implementing to make it as less inconveniencing to the public as possible.

  3. December 19, 2014 Business
    Bus1Oliver Kazunga Acting Business Editor

    THE Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has introduced a new electronic travel document for its staff to ease their travel while on business missions in member states.The document, which is called Machine Readable Travel Document (MRTD), will replace the Laissez Passer that was not widely accepted as it lacks compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.

    UM… I AM CONFUSED.

  4. Really laughable …you can print something embedded with security features like a Passport but can not print mere ballot paper!!

    • stop worries about those bunch of thieves and over paid losers….its indicative that they have misplaced priorities…

  5. Why should government print this for free and only allow COMESA to pay 20%??
    WHy should Zambians pay 80% for the COMESA passports??
    What type of stupidity is this one?

  6. IT IS TRUE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE BENEFITS THAT THIS WILL BRING TO AN ORDINALLY ZAMBIAN. PLEASE PRIORITISE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES, THIS ONE IS A FLAG SHOW

  7. as far as am concerned our government does not have enough resources at the moment and yet they decided to meet 80% of the printing cost for COMESA passports.what kind of nonsense is this ? so is this the austerity measures you talked about during the 2017 budget .misplaced priorities .

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