{"id":79020,"date":"2019-06-11T10:59:19","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T08:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=79020"},"modified":"2019-06-11T10:59:19","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T08:59:19","slug":"malawi-to-reap-from-17-2-billion-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/06\/11\/malawi-to-reap-from-17-2-billion-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi to reap from $17.2 billion market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Chimwemwe Mangazi:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_71272\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-71272\" style=\"width: 236px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/francis-mangeni.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-71272\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/francis-mangeni.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"236\" height=\"365\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/francis-mangeni.jpg 236w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/francis-mangeni-194x300.jpg 194w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-71272\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">OPTIMISTIC\u2014Mangeni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has embarked on an initiative to establish a Digital Free Trade Area (DFTA) which is expected to create a $17.2 billion-worth market for member states.<\/p>\n<p>This was revealed Monday at the opening of a three-day meeting for regional delegates.<\/p>\n<p>The Comesa DFTA would comprise a number of digital instruments to support trade among Comesa member states, including an electronic certificate of origin, underpinned by block chain technology and a mobile application for cross-border traders.<\/p>\n<p>Comesa announced in November 2017 that its secretariat had designed the digital free trade area and that an electronic certification arrangement was ready for use.<\/p>\n<p>Comesa Director of Trade and Customs, Francis Mangeni, said the initiative will take off soon.<\/p>\n<p>Mangeni said the electronic certificate of origin for the block would be commissioned at the end of the meeting.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cUnder this initiative, different digital systems that are used in member states will be linked so that all the processes will be completed at the click of a button,\u201d<\/em> Mangeni said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Director of Administration and Finance in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism, Joseph Mkandawire, said the initiative would enhance regional integration and reduce the cost of doing business.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative is also aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness among regional traders.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThis platform will link all member states digitally. For example, there will be a trade portal, where traders can easily access information. So, we want to make sure that we can speak the same language,\u201d<\/em> Mkandawire said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He said Malawi was treading carefully before it agrees to the conditions stipulated in the rules of origin to ensure that local traders benefit from the deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Chimwemwe Mangazi: Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has embarked on an initiative to establish a Digital Free Trade Area (DFTA) which is expected to create a $17.2 billion-worth market for member states. This was revealed Monday at the opening of a three-day meeting for regional delegates. The Comesa DFTA would comprise [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":79021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79022,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79020\/revisions\/79022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}