ECOWAS Ministers to Meet on Fast-Track Approach Towards Integration

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, November 20, 2001

ECOWAS Ministers to Meet on Fast-Track Approach Towards Integration

A joint ministerial meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Monetary and Economic Union of West Africa will take place in Bamako, Mali later this month to discuss the implementation of a fast-track approach to sub-regional integration.

According to a statement issued by the ECOWAS secretariat available here on Monday, ECOWAS ministers of foreign affairs, integration, finance and trade are scheduled to attend the two-day meeting beginning from November 23.

In evaluating the progress made on the fast-track approach, the statement said, the ministers are expected to identify challenges relating to the implementation of the declaration and its priority program of action.

The fast-track approach, which was approved by ECOWAS heads of state and government at their meeting in Lome in December, 1999, is aimed at facilitating the sub-regional economic and political integration.

"They will also consider progress made in the areas of a borderless zone, a single market, monetary cooperation, harmonization of sectoral programs and institutional matters," the statement said.

The meeting will also discuss the transition from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to the African Union (AU) along with the economic partnership agreements with the European

Union and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).

The NEPAD succeeded the New African Initiative (NAI), an ambitious economic plan modeled on the Marshall Plan for Europe, at the end of a one-day summit of the implementation committee on the NAI in Abuja on October 23.

The ministers will also work out a common west African position for negotiation of the economic partnership agreements with the European Union, and determine the ECOWAS' contribution to the management of the transition from the OAU to the AU and the definition of the AU's organs.

Others due to be present at the meeting will include representatives from the OAU, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank, the West

African Development Bank, the Central Bank of West African States, the ECOWAS committee of the central bank governors and the NEPAD.

The ECOWAS, which was founded in 1975 aimed for economic cooperation and integration, comprises 15 members, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.