Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe opened a major African economic summit on Sunday by appealing for greater self-reliance to boost development on the world's poorest continent. Mugabe -- who takes over the leadership of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) at the summit -- said member states must put money into the group's COMESA Fund to help cut dependence on foreign assistance. "Let us contribute our own resources to the fund which can enable us to finance infrastructural development without any strings attached," he was quoted as saying by Reuters. The two-day summit, being held in the resort town of Victoria Falls, will launch a customs union for its 19 member states stretching from Swaziland in the south to Egypt in the north, and Mugabe urged business leaders to explore investment opportunities in the region. "There is need for our organization to work to speed up the implementation of our programme towards greater development and integration," he said. COMESA is the largest trading block on the continent. Under the free customs union deal, the 19 member countries will impose the same tariffs on goods from outside the region.
