On Monday, May 29, the first session of a three-day endorsement workshop for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) kicked off in Cairo, Egypt, with the participation of member states’ delegations, air navigation service providers, and representatives of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority.
The workshop will tackle the theme of adopting a regional institutional framework for deploying interoperable communication, navigation, monitoring, and air transport management systems in the Eastern and Southern Africa and Indian Ocean regions.
In his opening remarks at the session, Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Abbas Helmy said Egypt, Chair of COMESA for the 2021-2023 term, is hosting the event in appreciation of its pivotal role in the civil aviation industry.
The minister also praised the effective coordination between the ministry and the regional economic bloc to bolster civil aviation cooperation with all countries, especially sisterly African nations.
As defined by its treaty, COMESA was established in 1994 ‘as an organization of free independent sovereign states that agreed to co-operate in developing their natural and human resources for the good of all their people; and as such, it has a wide-ranging series of objectives which necessarily include in its priorities the promotion of peace and security in the region. COMESA includes 21 African states as members.
