Ecowas Mid-Year Summit to Adopt Regional Common Industrial Policy in Cape Verde

30 June 2010
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Sal Island - Cape Verde — Regional leaders will adopt the West African industrial Policy during their historic 38th ordinary session in Sal Island, Cape Verde on 2nd July 2010.

The policy and action plan would provide a holistic, concentrated, integrated and competitive mechanism for the sustainable industrial development of the region in order to significantly improve the living standard of the citizens of the region by 2030. The two documents will help the region to accelerate its industrialization process by supporting endogenous industrial transformation of local raw materials, developing and diversifying industrial production capacities as well as strengthening regional integration and exports of manufactured goods.

The summit, the first to be hosted by a Portuguese-speaking Member State, will also approve regional instruments, particularly the Supplementary Acts and Decisions that will define the modalities for rotating the chairmanship of the Authority of Heads of State and Government, the apex organ of the Community, the role of Permanent Representatives within ECOWAS Member States and the creation of a tripartite social dialogue forum within ECOWAS. . This mid-year summit will also consider the 2010 interim report of the President of the ECOWAS Commission, which gives an overview of recent economic developments in the global economy and their implications for the ECOWAS region, the status of the West African economic performance, a progress report on the implementation of Community work programmes from November 2009 to June 2010 as well as the challenges and the way forward in 2010 and beyond. In addition, the Heads of State will consider the report of the Council of Ministers, an organ of the Community comprising ministers responsible for ECOWAS affairs in Member States, whose one-day extraordinary meeting was concluded on Wednesday, 30th June 2010 in Sal.

The Council of Ministers' report contains recommendations on the modalities for the rotation of the positions of President, Vice President, Financial Controller and Commissioners of the ECOWAS Commission, the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament and Judges of the Community Court of Justice. It also contains the status of the on-going negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between West Africa and the European Union for the creation of a free trade area of the two regions. Furthermore, the leaders will consider the report of the 28th Meeting of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council, which met at the ministerial level on 7th and 8th June 2010 in Abuja. The report includes recommendations on the adoption of the Regional Plan of Action, the Five-year Programme of Activities and the Request for Exemption Form relating to the Implementation of the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Their Ammunition and other Related Materials, the construction of the ECOWAS logistics facilities at Lungi (Freetown) as well as the political situation in Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea where elections were held on Sunday, 27th June 2010, Guinea Bissau, Niger and Togo.

The new President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador James Victor Gbeho, who took over from his compatriot, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, in March 2010 this year, will also be sworn in during the summit.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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