The 3^rd meeting of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Technical Committee on Movement of Business Persons (TTC-MBP) is being held from 3 to 6 November 2014, at Le Méridien Hotel, in Pointe aux Piments.

Discussions are ongoing on a draft negotiating text on the Movement of Business Persons. Around 80 delegates from the 26 Tripartite Member States are participating in the meeting.

The first COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Summit held in October 2008, in Uganda took major decisions in terms of moving towards a single market. One of the immediate priorities is to establish an enlarged Free Trade Area (FTA) encompassing the 26 Member States of COMESA, SADC and EAC. The Summit also agreed that negotiations to facilitate the movement of business persons should run in parallel with the negotiations on the Tripartite FTA, but on a separate track.

The issue of movement of business persons is very important to Mauritius with regard to its regional integration process. The mobility of business persons is a key factor of free and open trade. Facilitating access to our businessmen to move in the region provides benefits in terms of reduced delays, costs and burdensome administrative procedures, thereby leading to more efficient flow of goods, services, capital and people. Without an appropriate framework on the movement of business persons, the benefits of regional integration would be undermined.