The forum to harmonize business regulations in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) was held at Palace Kempinski Hotel in Djibouti, on December 6 and 7, 2017.
The forum that was organized by ABLE Network/Club 54 came up with legal ways to harmonize business regulations in the regional common market area.
The event held under the title: ‘Forum for Harmonization of Business Regulations in the COMESA Area’ included several legal actors from the region and lawyers from Djibouti.
Souleiman Ali Djama, Prosecutor General of Djibouti, told Capital that the forum is very interesting because it is talking about how to create African regional integration laws.
“It is specifically interesting because it is the first time that this kind of initiative has been hosted by a private network of lawyers,” he added.
“It is a good approach when talking about economic integration, it is in fact about business and contracts that automatically lead to lawyers and people who can help you and of course there is a lot of systems in different countries in the COMESA region so this kind of network of lawyers can help to make it easier to connect business people with different legal systems,” the Prosecutor General said.
“We have been working hard to unify on the common base in different countries on legal integration including the criminal cases,” he added.
The COMESA arbitration court ratified by many of the members is based in Djibouti and it is expected to be effective, according to Souleiman.
The forum includes several participants from different nations and has positively influenced integration and arbitration.
“Meanwhile Djibouti is the only Francophone country in COMESA, Anglophone and Arabic speakers are growing which makes the integration very easy for us,” the Prosecutor General said.
Maitre Ahned Abdourahman Chelk, who is one of the organizers of the forum said, “we decided to move on with the entire subject as the harmonization and facilitation of the economical and business law within the COMESA.”
ABLE Network/Club 54 is a leading Pan-African network and think tank, with members in 45 African countries and a dozen non-African countries.