Your Excellency Mr. Tagesse Chafo, Speaker of the House of Peoples Representatives
Your Excellency Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe, Secretary General of COMESA
Your Excellency Dr. Kassahun Gofe, Minister of Trade and Regional Integration
Ms. Maureen Sumbwe Chairperson of the COMESA Federation of Women in Business
Senior Government Officials of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Excellences Ambassadors and Members of Diplomatic Corps
Chiefs Executives Officers of COMESA Institutions
Chairpersons of the COMESA Federation of Women in Business
CEOs of private sector and all women in Business present
Members of Media, Distinguish Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a great honor for me to represent H.E. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, at the opening ceremony of the COMESA Businesswomen’s Federation Forum. He would have wished to be here in person to witness firsthand the dynamism and leadership of COMESA in its feminine dimension, especially so soon after assuming his responsibilities at the helm of our continental organization, the Africa Union Commission.

I would like to convey his warm greetings and words of encouragement—along with my own—for this important initiative, which clearly reflects the strong will and capacity of African women to serve as a driving force for the structural transformation of our continent’s economy.

warmly welcome the presence of the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and I would like to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation for their commendable efforts in organizing this COMESA Week.

How can I not also express my deep appreciation and sincere satisfaction to the COMESA Secretariat and the COMESA Businesswomen's Federation who, through a collaboration effort driven by the shared goal of showcasing COMESA, have successfully brought to life a week long series of impactful events. These events are a remarkable accomplishment, marked by the triple hallmarks of regional integration, business development, and inclusive trade.

This morning's ceremony is a continuation of the previous series, labeled the 2nd Forum on the promotion of COMESA Institutions, and marked by the active participation of the various partners around the theme: "Accelerating Regional Integration through the Development of Climate-Resilient Regional Value Chains in Agriculture, Mining, and Tourism."

This Forum has shed bright light on COMESA's diverse strengths in areas such as demographics, mineral wealth, eco-tourism, and green value chains. The combined impacts of these assets places COMESA in a unique and privileged position to have a strong influence on important drivers of economic transformation, including access to finance, infrastructure development for trade facilitation, value chain development, and private sector empowerment.

Excellences
Ladies and Gentlemen
This commendable performance by COMESA illustrates its contribution to achieving the objectives of the AfCFTA in terms of industrial productivity and improved intra-African trade, on the one hand, and to the achievement of Agenda 2063, on the other.

It also highlights the dual status of women, as both agents of economic transformation and beneficiaries of this transformation.

Beyond this commendable performance, we must applaud this original and inclusive initiative, which, through its rotation approach benefiting of each of the Member States, ensure COMESA's ownership by all its citizens and a solid regional anchoring based on concrete achievements.

The African Union is built, as prescribed by the Abuja Treaty, on the strength of its pillars, the Regional Economic Communities. The vitality of COMESA, best expressed in the formula of this Forum, which is expected to travel to all its Member States, provides irrefutable proof of the weight of political will.

Willing is power.

I would kindly like to invite COMESA to share its experience with all other RECs in a spirit of mutual enrichment through the development of reciprocal relations that is beneficial to the entire continent. This is how an inclusive Africa, the Africa we want, will be built. The African Union Commission, for its part, will always offer its best to support COMESA in its journey to the heights of its development.

I thank you.