Accra, (Greater Accra) 2 March '99,
Accra, (Greater Accra) 2 March '99, The Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States on Monday called on West African countries to pursue co-ordinated and harmonised economic management policies to ensure the physical integration of the sub-region. Mr Lansana Kouyate noted that "without such a deliberate attempt at building a regional system of economic relations and interaction, the mere elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers will be of little or no effect. Mr Kouyate made these remarks at a Regional Conference on Economic Co-operation Through Trade at the second ECOWAS Trade Fair underway at the Ghana International Trade Fair Centre (GITFC). Conscious regional policies are being pursued to develop an inter-dependent production network. Mr Kouyate said trade matters are central to regional economic co-operation adding that regional infrastructure programmes are being adopted to ensure the physical integration of the region. "Trade co-operation is important because the development of regional trade will stimulate competition and engender economic dynamism". He said trade liberalisation that results from regional co- operation efforts eliminate domestic protection and challenges genuine entrepreneurs. Mr Kouyate said the expansion of the national markets through the reduction of tariff barriers gives an impetus to the exploitation and development of the resource potentials of the region. The Executive Secretary said this stimulates economic growth and the creation of additional wealth. "In this modern economy where technology favours big business and large scale production, the transformation of tiny national markets into large regional economy encourages the achievement of economies of scale", Mr Kouyate added. Mr Kouyate announced that ECOWAS, in partnership with Mooregate is organising to focus attention on business opportunities in the sub-region. In this connection a series of meetings, seminars, workshops and ministerial conference and an exhibition will be organised from November 24 to 26 in London on Solid Mineral Resource of West Africa. Opening the conference, Dr. John Abu Minister of Trade and Industry, called for strong policy measures in all member countries to promote the level of cross border trade. He Said intra-regional trade is low at about 10 per cent of total trade in West Africa compared with the European Union's over 60 per cent. "Co-operation and regional integration is increasingly becoming an important stepping-stone towards full integration of regional economies". Dr. Abu suggested the re-orientation towards co-operation and economic integration, which centre on trade liberalisation, exchange of development experiences, mutual support and assistance, inter-enterprise and business level co-operation and technical assistance among other things. "All these modalities of co-operation which are creating viable economic spaces, contribute directly to the resilience and buoyancy of the world economy "The pronounced trend of regionalisation in recent years can also be seen as an implicit insurance policy for developing countries in the globalisation and the liberalisation process. He asked member states, who celebrate their national days and regional workshops not only to highlight on their national economic and cultural potentials but also to draw attention to our '' fragile sub-regional economic integration and come out with measures to help build a tangible meaningful sub-regional integration".
