President Goodluck Jonathan
President Goodluck Jonathan Thursday said that members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) were being marginalised in the flow of global trade and investment. The President made this disclosure in his address at the 2nd ECOWAS Investment Forum which commenced in Lagos Thursday . He therefore appealed for partnership between member states and external partners to ensure that the observed imbalance is corrected.
Jonathan whose speech was presented by Vice President, Namadi Sambo, emphasised that the West African region had shown a lot of promises given the various economic and political reforms that most countries in the region had embarked upon. “In spite of the current global economic and financial markets volatility, West Africa has shown a lot of promises given the various economic and political reforms that a number of our member states had embarked upon. The forum is put in place to demonstrate that the region currently offers tremendous opportunities for foreign investors.
“I am glad to note that various initiatives of ECOWAS Commission indicate that these objectives of regional integration is being achieved in phases from our ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), through the Common External Tariff (CET) that has been accepted by all the 15 member states to the current harmonisation of the member states investment laws under the common market. ‘’ With these giant strides, i see our region becoming an Economic Union sooner than expected, where the boundaries that had separated our interaction over the centuries past would become irrelevant,” Jonathan is also the Chairman of ECOWAS Commission added.
He also advised member states to open their financial markets and institutions to other member states within the region as well as to permit local market participants to invest abroad. He said further: “It is my belief that by creating confidence in financial co-operations among member states via regional payment system, regional stock exchange, regional credit data base and the information on investment climate indicators, the region is providing the basis for harmonised single economic space as well as steps towards the common currency aspiration of the community.
“However, more ambitious objectives related to regional trade-related payment systems can be met only if member states collaborate in these various arrangements and initiatives of the commission towards deeper macroeconomic convergence.”
No comments:
Post a Comment