This archive report was first published on 3 September 2019.
The Sixth COMESA Annual Research Forum is underway in Nairobi, with over 80 leading academicians, trade experts from the public and private sector, policy think-tanks, and innovators in science and technology from the COMESA Member States attending.
September 3, 2019
The week-long forum, anchored under the theme: “Promoting Intra-COMESA Trade through Innovation”, aims to share knowledge and deliberate on empirical issues on how to promote intra-COMESA trade through innovation.
Thirteen research papers prepared by researchers from across the region will be presented at the Forum, which is primarily concerned with ensuring that the highest quality research-derived evidence informs policy development in COMESA.
Assistant Secretary General of COMESA, Dr Kipyego Cheluget, emphasized the importance of the research forum’s output, stating that there was a ready demand for it.
“Member States have continued to appreciate the critical role of the policy analysis and many of them have been implementing the policy recommendations on various papers presented in the previous research forums,” he said.
Dr Chris Kiptoo, the Principal Secretary in the State Department of Trade in Kenya, highlighted the significance of innovation in achieving productivity growth, stating that organizations that innovate successfully can enhance their competitiveness and position themselves for growth.
Dr George Njenga, the Dean of the Business School at the Strathmore University in Nairobi, stressed the need for implementing the numerous high-quality research outputs from scholars in Africa, recommending the establishment of data and exhibition centres for the small and medium enterprises in the COMESA region to promote the commercialization of innovation products.
