Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mulambo Haimbe, says the 24th Heads of State and Government Common Market for Southern and Eastern Africa (COMESA) slated for Thursday, October 9, 2025, is an important undertaking as it will highlight aspects of sustainable development in the region, among other things.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Nairobi, Mr Haimbe, who will represent Present Hakainde Hichilema at the Summit, notes that with the ever changing environment, African countries must concentrate more on where to add value in terms of trade and investment.
He stressed that African countries must ensure that interactions during such events has a direct benefit for the people in the COMESA region.
The Minister noted that the theme for the summit dubbed ‘Leveraging Digitalisation to Deepen Regional Value Chains for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth’ speaks to key issues such as digitisation and its impact on the development agenda and sustainable growth building value chains amongst African countries.
“So this is why we are here, for us as Zambia to participate in this very important meeting and to bring out those aspects,” he stated.
Mr Haimbe further noted that through such interactions, Africa is able to bring out value and the vast potential within COMESA for countries to become self-sustaining.
“It is so diverse, as COMESA, we are talking of countries that are more industrialised, we can talk about Egypt, we can bring value through our interactions with them.
“And on the other hand, we have ourselves to offer, we have other countries of course our host, Kenya, Burundi, Somalia, Sudan, you name them. There is vast potential within COMESA for us to now start being self-sustaining as countries and for Zambia that is a keen interest because we also want to look at how we can get to leverage on what we all bring to the table to ensure that we address the key concerns that we as Zambia has expressed at many platforms including the AU and here as well,” explained the Minister.
And, Mr Haimbe hinted that Zambia will express matters relating to global financial architecture as well as the country’s capital needs to be able to raise financing for the various projects that need to be undertaken.
“We all know that infrastructural projects are amongst the key drivers for development.
So this is all encompassing but also of key importance.
“We need to ask questions like what does digitalisation bring to the table? What does it offer for us as countries? Where do we leverage this modern phenomenon to ensure that our interactions are productive for the good of achieving sustainable development goals. I’m sure there will be eye opening positions here,” he said.
Mr Haimbe, who arrived in Nairobi, Kenya today, is tomorrow expected to attend the COMESA 20th Meeting for Ministers of Foreign Affairs at the Jomo Kenyatta Conference Centre.
It’s a regional affair in UPND.