(NYASATIMES) Malawi to participate in public procurement in COMESA

Malawi to participate in public procurement in COMESA
By Nyasa Times
Published: August 15, 2009

The Malawi private sector will soon be taking part in public procurement activities in member countries of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Trade and Industry Minister, Eunice Kazembe, said Saturday in Blantyre. The Minister disclosed this when she opened a one-day seminar on business opportunities for the private sector.

She said government was committed to supporting the private sector by exploring business opportunities existing in the COMESA region including its involvement in public procurement activities.

“Public procurement has today become closely bonded with good governance and financial management practices as it traverses all public activities of government and takes a large portion of recurrent and capital budgets combined together,” said the Trade Minister.

Kazembe said it had been established that almost 60 to 70 per cent of government’s capital budget was used up by public procurement and that as such, it deserved appropriate attention adding that if poorly managed government socio-economic programmes could be heavily affected.

The minister observed that it was important for the business community, especially those involved in supplying goods and services, to be well equipped with techniques on how they could effectively compete in the region through the just launched COMESA Customs Union for maximum benefits.

Leader of the COMESA delegation, Colas Ziki, agreed with the Minister that capacity building for the business community was important, saying it would enable them to claim their share of all business opportunities in the COMESA region.

Siki said the COMESA Customs Union had opened up many business opportunities in the areas of regulation, bidding and supplying process and that as such it was imperative that the region’s business people be conversant with all the procurement intricacies so that they compete effectively.

The COMESA Customs Union was launched this year in Zimbabwe by Heads of State in the region. Among other things, it will level the playing field for the region’s producers as it will impose uniform customs procedures and external tariffs on imported goods.

Apart from importing and exporting various products in the region, the COMESA members will be expected to make their public procurements activities available to all traders in the region. As such, traders in the region will have the opportunity to bid to supply goods in any COMESA country as long as they qualify. –Mana