CWEIC Dep. Chairman Lord Swire advocates deliberate intra-trade among member countries

The Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC) believes that for member countries to be able to mitigate the current global economic challenges, there must be a deliberate attempt at intra-trade in the sub-region as most economies are under the lingering impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia, Ukraine War, which has disrupted global value chains.

Speaking to the media in a meeting in Accra, Deputy Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, Lord Swire added that his office remains committed to facilitating trade amongst member countries.

“The council is about promoting trade within the 56 countries of the Commonwealth. It's a huge marketplace, consisting of 2.4 billion people or so and 60% of which interestingly enough are under the age of 30. So it's a very young market, and the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, of which I'm Deputy Chairman, is here to make sure that we all trade more with each other, which as you say, is important in Ghana.”

The meeting was made up of some senior business leaders at a breakfast meeting held at Movenpick Ambassador Hotel with the Head of Mission, John Apea.

At the meeting, Lord Swire further noted that “It's important in the UK, it's important right across the Commonwealth that we've got to trade our way out of this economic difficulty in which we now find ourselves. We were discussing this yesterday and I had good meetings with people right across Ghana and including the President.”

“Africa wants to have a single market, and it may be some time before it achieves that, but in the meantime, and even when it has that, it needs to trade with the other countries of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth is a club of like-minded countries right across the world, ranging from Canada to Australia. So it's not just about Africa, but our organization is very focused on Africa. We see it as an area, a continent with great opportunity, and that's why we are investing more to expand our network on the African continent,” he added.

CWEIC is a commercial, not-for-profit membership organisation with an official mandate from the Commonwealth Heads of Government to facilitate trade and investment throughout the 56 Commonwealth member nations.

The role of CWEIC is to use the convening power and trusted network of the Commonwealth, which is led by the British King, to drive trade and investment.

CWEIC’s network includes around 100 business and government Strategic Partners (members) including Standard Chartered, Zenith Bank, Trade & Investment Queensland and the Government of the Maldives from 30 countries and territories. Every two years, CWEIC hosts the Commonwealth Business Forum in association with the host country of The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).