Abou Raouf Afraitane, Head of Comoros Delegation / "The country is making progress on economic integration"

29-09-2018 11:18

The head of the office of origin participated in almost all the technical meetings of the experts organized during the last ten years. He returns to the major reforms undertaken by Comoros without neglecting the challenges that the country must meet to be in phase with the policy of economic integration.

All countries of the continent are making efforts, each at its level and with its means, to follow the train of continental free trade zone in Africa There are the standard reforms that the continent's customs must follow to meet the demands of the day. In Comoros, despite the slow pace, many reforms have been initiated since 2007, when the country expressed its intention to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) and become a full member of the Common Market Eastern and Southern Africa.

"We switched from the Asycuda ++ to Asycudaworld. There have been major projects of computerization of all our information systems with the interconnection which allows us to assure a better trimming of information ", explains the head of the Delegation of Comoros, Abdou Raouf Afraitane.

Today, we are in the system AsycudaWord, it is a major advance because this new system offers us the possibility of dematerializing customs clearance procedures, "he says. "The country has nevertheless made progress in terms of economic integration, we are much ahead in terms of computerization, today users can clear their goods online, which was not the case ten years ago. There is also the liberalization of the transport sector ".
The countries of our continent are called upon to implement according to the revised Kyoto Protocol of 2005, the Arusha Declaration on Good Customs Practices and the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFE) inspired by the World Customs Organization to accompany the customs of the continent in terms of modernization. Mr. Afraitane talks about the development of ethical measures and the adaptation of Comorian legislation to the texts of regional and international organizations.

«Comoros have done important work to harmonize the texts. Our customs code is in harmony with all organizations, tax and investment codes which have been revised and adapted, "adds Abdou Raouf Afraitane who emphasizes that the country has also initiated training plans at all levels to improve the skills of human resources. «It’s a long process that will require regular and ongoing reforms, all countries make their own reforms but there are shared obligations," he says, explaining that the country has put in place recommended structures such as risk analysis on corruption or the Committee on Trade Facilitation.

However, the Union of Comoros, in view of its economic size and its insularity, must bypass obstacles to create the conditions for true integration. "We must continue the plan to mobilize basic infrastructure, roads, airports and ports," he said, regretting a still limited capacity of the tourism offer. "How to interest people to come to us? What activities to put in place to interest tourists and investors? What needs to be done to have sufficient hotel infrastructure that meets international standards? How to produce and export our products? How to reduce freight costs? And what to do for a reliable health system? ", Asked Abdou Raouf Afraitane showing that these are issues to be settled.



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