The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa announced that it is to implement a pilot project on Virtual Trade Facilitation System in the Djibouti Corridor of Ethiopia.

According to State Minister for Finance and Economic Development Ahmed Shide, the project is expected to improve competittion, expand trade and enhance information exchange in the region.

The system facilitates the tracking of cargo, control of the movement of goods and monitor and to ensure the efficiency, time management, cost effectiveness and transparency reducing time and cost for cross border and local transport as well as transit traffic along the corridor he added.

It is expected that the project will help create a sustainable environment for the flow of trade amongst the member states of COMESA and internationally said Ahmed.

Ethiopia is looking into a plan to enhance its infrastructure and lower the cost of facilitating imports and exports.

Ethiopia is seeking to develop its infrastructure, reduce costs related to facilitating import/export and to support trade activity explained the Minister.

The pilot is intended to develop a smooth, efficient and competitive system along the Djibouti corridor said Sidiso Ngongna, Secretary General of the COMESA.

The project will be implemented in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Djibouti with the ultimate aim of enhancing cross border trade and controlling the processes that facilitate the movement of goods across borders in the region so as to implement efficient and less costly regulatory procedures.

The workshop was attended by participants from the Transport Authority, the Ministry of Transport and Communication, Customs and Revenue Authority, Marine Transport and Logistics Service Enterprise, Maritime Authority, and Transport Authority.