"Short
Term Pain Leads to Long Term Gain": Tetteh
Accra (Ghana), August 27, 2013
"CUTS" Opens Third office in Sub Saharan Africa
"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".
For further information please contact:
Kshitiz Sharma, +233576323141 or +919828889991,
ks@cuts.org
Appiah Adomako, 233243920926,
accra@cuts.org