The COMESA Treaty envisages a fully integrated, internationally competitive regional community within which goods, services, capital and labour are free to move across national borders. Additionally, COMESA has two Protocols on the Movement of Persons; on the gradual relaxation and eventual elimination of visas (1984) and the free movement of persons, labour, services, right of establishment and residence adopted in 2001.

However, due to various reasons the Protocols are not fully implemented and the movement of persons; particularly business persons, remains constrained to the detriment of trade and regional integration.

The COMESA Council Of Ministers proposed COMESA Common Travel Instrument for the movement of Business Persons, herein known as the “COMESA Business Visa.” In 2008 the COMESA Ministers responsible for Immigration discussed the proposal to have a Simplified Travel Document to support the movement of Persons in the region. The Meeting agreed that in principle such a simplified travel document could enhance the movement of people in the region.

In March 2012, COMESA Business Council, representative of the private sector in the region tabled before the Council of Ministers the need to have an interim solution for the movement of business persons in the region – through a common travel document for business persons known as the COMESA Business Visa. This will be an interim measure, as member states move towards the COMESA passport. Following which, The Thirty Second COMESA Council of Ministers meeting, 2012 endorsed the Decisions of the Fifth Meeting of COMESA Ministers Responsible for Immigration, and further made the following decisions:

• Council decided that the Protocol on the Free Movement of Business persons should be discussed with various sectoral committees before it is implemented;

• Council decided that the discussion on business passports/visas should be carefully re-examined especially that a business visa could suffice;

As a result, CBC has been tasked to work with COMESA Secretariat on the development of a business visa model to be presented to various consultative processes for adoption. This will be through an analytical study proposing the model instrument for the Business Visa and recommending the supporting framework necessary for its implementation.

Overall Objective of the Consultancy

The objective of the assignment is to develop a model instrument to facilitate the movement of business persons; herein named the COMESA Business Visa.

The assignment will broadly cover the following focus areas;

• Develop a project document that gives relevant background, justification, and operational scheme and budget for the implementation of the COMESA Business Visa scheme. The project document will include an assessment of the relevance of the business visa in comparison to other visas being issued.

• Develop a draft COMESA Business Visa instrument and operational scheme for validation.

Applications must be received on or before 17th August 2015 at 15.00 hours, Zambia time.

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