Accra — At the end of their Second Tripartite Meeting in Accra, Ghana, representatives of ECOWAS, UEMOA and the World Bank Group, have agreed on a set of priorities aimed at significantly diversifying and transforming the economies of the sub-region. The delegates highlighted, among other things, boosting agricultural productivity and marketing; making the infrastructure sectors - transport (both road and air) and energy more efficient; scaling up efforts to eradicate Ebola and other infectious diseases and preventing violent conflicts, while implementing the sub-region's Common External Tariff (CET) which became effective on 1 January 2015.
"Since our first meeting in July 2013, we have made considerable progress in implementing an ambitious joint action plan in the six areas that we prioritized--Agriculture, Education, Trade and Trade Facilitation, Transport, Regional Investment Climate and Sahel," notes Colin Bruce, World Bank Africa Region's Director responsible for Regional Integration. "Over the past two days, we have had some very fruitful discussions and have identified a few transformational priorities, work programs, timelines and division of responsibilities, which would form the bedrock of our collaboration in the next two years.
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