'Short Term Pain Leads To Long Term
Gain': Hanna Tetteh As 'CUTS Centre' Opens Its
Third Office In Sub Saharan Africa
Modern Ghana, August 27, 2013
'The short term pain that we have to bear
in our bid to overcome the challenges of regional
integration would lead to long term gain for everyone,'
said Hanna S. Tetteh, the Ghanaian Minister for Foreign
Affairs and Regional Integration.
'We welcome the opening of the CUTS Centre in Accra and
look forward to its active participation in providing
research support to Ghana and the West African region on
critical economic policy issues' said Madam Tetteh. 'We
are aware of the distinguished work of CUTS and I have
personally interacted with them during my earlier
position as Trade & Industries Minister of Ghana'.
'CUTS has developed a successful methodology of
connecting grassroots to the policy makers especially
through applied research, advocacy and networking' said
the Minister. 'We value this experience and look forward
to more cooperation'.
Madam Tetteh was delivering the 8th CUTS 30th
Anniversary Lecture here on Monday 26th August on the
theme: 'Regional Integration as Tool for Poverty
Reduction in West Africa' and the inaugural ceremony of
CUTS Centre at Accra.
The event was held in association with Institute of
Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), a
partner of CUTS in Ghana. Over 150 people from the
policy community including many diplomats, academia,
private sector, civil society and media participated.
'Regional integration in West Africa has contributed
somewhat to poverty reduction though the data to support
this position is not easily available', asserted Madam
Tetteh.
'For sure, ECOWAS is celebrated within and outside
Africa as one of the most innovative and advanced among
the continent's regional economic communities.
'This is particularly in the areas of conflict
prevention, management and peacekeeping which are
prerequisites for socio-economic development but more as
an example of successful political rather than economic
cooperation.
'The establishment of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation
Scheme (ETLS) is another critical project in the
Community's drive to promote and consolidate economic
integration in West Africa, and thus reduce poverty
among its people. The Scheme is anchored on the complete
removal of all trade barriers in the region, and the
standardisation of all custom duties and taxes of
equivalent effect, with the view to enhancing
intra-regional trade,' she added.
She also mentioned the implementation of the joint
border port arrangements which should make it less
cumbersome to deal with the administrative bureaucracies
at the borders, agreeing on the Common External Tariff
which will hopefully take place in October this year in
Dakar, should make it easier to do business with the
region and the world.
The event was chaired by Prof Ernest Aryeetey, the Vice
Chancellor of University of Ghana. The discussants
included: Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS
International; Dr. Toga Gayewea McIntosh, Vice
President, ECOWAS and Mr. Ishmael Yamson, Board Chair of
Standard Chartered Bank (Ghana).
Professor Aryeetey in his opening remarks said regional
integration will lead to competition which in turn will
drive down prices meaning new jobs and additional
incomes for consumers. He added that 'regional
integration is the wave of the future. It will not solve
all of our problems, but we are convinced that the gains
to winners far exceeds the losses to losers'.
Contributing on the subject, Ishmael E. Yamson,
Chairman, Standard Chartered Bank (Ghana) said: 'We must
have vision and ambition for the ECOWAS sub region. We
must look at the larger 300 million market of people.
Investments will pursue such large market opportunities.
Private sector must be encouraged to actively
participate in the Regional Integration efforts.'
He added that 'more needs to be done to harmonise the
legal and regulatory framework for the ECOWAS region
especially the two divergent systems derived from
Britain and France that exits in the region.'
'I see regional integration as a tool, not just a
strategy for fixing the problems and challenges of the
region. It should become ECOWAS of the people of West
Africa. The ECOWAS as a vehicle is being fixed with a
tool box. Tools are not only used to solve problems, but
are used to add value to a product or process, such
should be our approach to adding value to ECOWAS', said
Dr. Toga Gayewea McIntosh, Vice President, ECOWAS. 'We
need to study the costs of non-integration for which we
will establish a working group'.
'We had done a study on the costs of economic
non-cooperation in South Asia two years ago which showed
gain of US$2bn to consumers if tariffs were
rationalized. This could result in 20mn new jobs and
substantial lowering of consumer costs. We will be happy
to do a similar study for the ECOWAS region, where we
have many research partners', said Mr Pradeep S Mehta,
Secretary General of CUTS International.
'Through establishing its centre in Accra, CUTS aims to
strengthen its approach of promoting South-South
Cooperation in the whole of Sub Saharan Africa, other
than sharing our knowledge and skills in Ghana and the
West Africa region.
'India is cooperating with most countries in Africa and
it has a shared legacy of colonialism, and its
cooperation will continue in the area of skill building
and soft infrastructure. At CUTS, we are working with
the Government of India in the Indo-Africa Cooperation
Framework. Furthermore, through the framework of
trilateral development cooperation, we are also working
with several western bilateral donors', said Mr Mehta in
his closing remarks.
CUTS Assistant Director, Kshitiz Sharma proposed the
vote of thanks and said that our work is complimentary
to governments and intergovernmental organisations. 'We
bring in the critical dimension of civil society
participation in policy making and immersion which leads
to sustainable solutions'.
Office address: No 30 Oroko Avenue, near Accra Teacher
Training College, Kokomlemle, Accra, Ghana;
Email:
accra@cuts.org; Tel:
+233243920926
Appiah Kusi Adomako
Accra Coordinator
Consumer Unity and Trust Society-(CUTS)
No 30 Oroko Avenue (Near Accra Central View Hotel and ATTC
Kokomlemle), Accra,
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