Delegations from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) on Friday launched two bank-financed trade-related projects, the Tripartite Capacity Building Programme (TCBP) and the Comesa Trading for Peace (TfP) Project, in the Tunisian capital Tunis.

The bank, in collaboration with three regional economic communities (RECs) – the East African Community, Comesa and the Southern Africa Development Community, developed the projects, which were aimed at improving regional integration.

The TCBP comprised a $7.5-million grant to the REC’s, which aimed to enhance the capacity of the trade communities to address trade-related constraints.

The programme would facilitate the negotiations process for the establishment of a tripartite free trade area, scale-up industrial research and assist in the identification and removal of nontariff barriers and other bottlenecks that prevented the tripartite region from becoming borderless.

In addition, the TfP Project comprised a $963 000 grant to Comesa to support the implementation of its TfP programme, which was the first formal Comesa programme to address post-conflict reconstruction and development.

Its objective was to consolidate peace in post-conflict areas, primarily in the Great Lakes region, by encouraging interaction and building trust between communities through the facilitation and formalisation of cross-border trade.

The project would increase access to information in various border areas through the establishment of trade information desks and the provision of targeted trade-related training.

The TfP was financed through the recently launched Africa Trade Fund, which was a bank-hosted, trade-related technical assistance facility to enhance the trade performance of African countries.

AfDB resident representative for Zambia Freddie Kwesiga said on Friday that, despite the progress made in trade and regional integration in Comesa and the tripartite region, there remained obstacles to regional cooperation.

“I am confident that the TCBP will accelerate the consolidation of the tripartite region into a single economic space and that the TfP will result in a significant reduction in informal activity, trade-related complaints and insecurity, while generating increases in cross-border trade volumes,” he commented.

Also speaking at the launch, Comesa secretary general Sindiso Ngwenya saluted the bank for its consistent focus on regional infrastructure, stating that, without regional infrastructure connectivity, deep African integration would never be achieved.

“The tripartite is a significant step in the realisation of the African Union’s continental objectives, particularly the continental free trade area. Comesa is honoured to have been designated by the RECs and the bank as the executing agency for the programme,” he said.