He is accompanied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean Paul Adam, resident high commissioner to SADC and Comesa, Joseph Nourrice, and technical staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Finance and Trade.

The summit’s objectives are to formally launch the Tripartite Free Trade Area (T-FTA) negotiations between the 26 member countries of the three Regional Economic Communities (RECs) – namely, the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa), East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The Tripartite FTA will provide for the creation of a larger, integrated market with a combined Gross Domestic Product of about $625 billion and a combined population of approximately 700 million people, effectively creating the largest Free Trade Area in the world.

This initiative follows the call of the African Union (AU) to accelerate the economic integration of the African continent with the aim of achieving economic growth, reducing poverty and allowing for sustainable development.

This landmark undertaking is also geared towards boosting regional infrastructure development, and supporting industrial development and diversification among the members as some of the key objectives of the formation of the T-FTA.

The first Tripartite Summit that was held in October 2008 in Kampala, Uganda agreed upon a broad base of principles on which a programme of harmonisation of trading arrangements amongst the three regional groupings (Comesa-EAC-SADC) would foster cooperation, namely: deepen integration to compete more effectively in the global economy and the joint implementation of inter-regional infrastructure programmes as well as institutional arrangements.

The Tripartite FTA arrangement, the first phase of which is hoped to be operational in 2015, will provide a wider market for Seychelles exports and imports, reduce barriers to trade and harmonise regional programmes that will lessen the administrative burden of multiple memberships of regional organisation for Seychelles.