Concord Times (Freetown)
Bohyy Jalloh
5 November 2009
Freetown — Certainly unimpressed with some of the challenges still plaguing the aviation sector in West and Central Africa, the council of ministers responsible for civil aviation from the two regions has ended its one-day meeting in Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire with recommendations on improving the sector, 10 years after the Yamoussoukro Decision was signed.
The recommendations, which will be forwarded through the council of ministers to the Heads of State of both ECOWAS and CEMAC (the Economic and Monetary Union of Central Africa), seek to address all the constraints to the full and effective implementation of the Decision.
In this regard, the ministers unequivocally called for "the full implementation of Yamoussoukro decision and the elimination of all forms of non physical barriers".
Their recommendations also include a call for the "urgent creation or consolidation in the Member States, of civil aviation authorities with the appropriate legal, financial and managerial status to enable them fully and efficiently discharge their mandates under the Yamoussoukro decision".
In a document entitled "Resolution Relating to the Liberalization of Air Transport in West and Central Africa" which was signed by the Ivorian minister of transport, Dr. Albert Toikeusse Mabri who chaired the meeting, the ministers also called for the means to facilitate the provision of adequate financial resources for the operations of the national civil aviation authorities and agencies within the air transport system as well as for other regional agencies.
Also, they agreed on ensuring infrastructural development, a continued improvement of air navigation and airport facilities and services as well as the replacement of obsolete equipment in the two regions.
The ministers further proposed the recruitment and maintaining of skilled and adequate manpower through training and retention of competent air transport experts to meet the needs of regulators, operators and air service providers in West and Central Africa.
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