Regional integration to engender
competition - Hanna Tetteh
Ghana Business News, August 27, 2013
Ms Hanna Serwaah Tetteh, Minister of
Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, on Monday
reiterated that successful regional integration would equip
the sub-region with the tools for the fierce competition
taking place across the globe.
She said the regional body, Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) therefore needed to continue to
create the atmosphere of peace and stability as
preconditions for sustainable development.
Ms Tetteh said this in a lecture, "Regional Integration as a
Tool for Poverty Reduction in West Africa" at the Consumer
Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) International 30th
Anniversary lecture and the inauguration of CUTS-Accra
Centre.
CUTS International, a global think-tank established in
Jaipur, India in 1983, has become a leading southern voice
on trade, regulation, investment, competition, consumer
protection and governance.
Its mission is "Consumer Sovereignty in the Framework of
Social, Justice and Equality within and across borders."
Ms Tetteh said for the ideals of ECOWAS to remain relevant
and practical, the regional body ought to strengthen its
institutions, conflict prevention mechanisms and deepen
democracy rather than the continual resort to reactive
measures.
The Foreign Minister however called for intra-regional
introspection and collective effort towards implementing the
integration agenda as a catalyst for development and change.
She commended CUTS for its research and networked advocacy
in addressing contemporary development issues from the
grassroots to the international policy-making arena and
pledged government's support and fruitful collaboration.
Dr Toga Gayewea McIntosh, Vice Chairman of ECOWAS
Commission, said his outfit was redoubling efforts to
actualize its mandate including its new Vision 2020, which
focuses on its people than member states.
He said ECOWAS was striving to creating a borderless,
prosperous and cohesive region where people have the
capacity to access and harness its enormous resources
through the creation of opportunities for sustainable
development and environmental preservation.
Dr McIntosh said this needs ingredients such as human
resource, capital, attitude and ingenuity as well as value
addition for global competition.
He said ECOWAS was exploring opportunities to kick-start a
working session for the establishment of a West African
Graduate University with support from the University of
Ghana and CUTS International to begin a process of churning
out well-thought students to cushion the sub-region's
development aspirations.
Mr Ismael E. Yamson, Chairman, Standard Chartered Bank,
Ghana, appealed to the private sector across the sub-region
to forge partnerships as a recipe for deepening regional
integration for the needed growth and development.
He called for the harmonization of legal and regulatory
systems to serve as the fulcrum around which business is
done, adding "There is lot more to lose if regional
integration fails to work, the cost will be huge and
demoralising."
Mr Yamson advocated for bringing on the informal sector to
facilitate the cause of doing business, expand access and
enhance the economic unity and development of the
sub-region.
Mr Pradeep Mehta, Secretary-General of CUTS, said from a
zero budget it rose to become a global brand in three
decades with strategic interventions in various areas of
public policy with proven results.
"We have been able to build up a large network of friends,
businesses and nations around the world with our cutting
edge work in trade, regulation and governance," he said.
Professor Ernest Aryeetey, Vice Chancellor of University of
Ghana said CUTS ingenuity would promote south-south trade
and cooperation and hope regional integration would become
more competitive and engender maximum gains among member
states.
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