Infrastructure, Trade Openness and Economic Transformation in Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) Member Countries

This study investigates the effect of infrastructure and trade openness on the evolution of manufacturing and services sector output using panel data from 14 selected COMESA member countries over the period 1993-2016. The Pooled Mean Group, Mean Group and Dynamic Fixed Effects were used to estimate the effect. The results show strong evidence of a significant long run relationship between the interactive effects of infrastructure and trade openness and the evolution of the manufacturing output. It is recommended that countries in the region should focus in improving access to infrastructure. In addition, countries in the region should further liberalize trade as the significant effect of infrastructure depends on the level of openness