UNIDO and ECOWAS Collaboration for Better Participation of ECOWAS Member States in International Trade

8 August 2010
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Abuja — The Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Mr. Kandeh Yumkella visited Nigeria for five days from 31 July 2010 during which he met with the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador James Victor Gbeho to discuss various aspects of regional integration, particularly the fruitful partnership between both organizations. In West Africa, UNIDO implements projects at national and regional levels providing technical know-how and expertise to ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania in the field of trade capacity building, agro-industrial development, industrial upgrading and restructuring, renewable energy and clean development mechanism. Mr. Yumkella was accompanied by the UNIDO Representative in Nigeria and Director of the Regional Industrial Development Center for West Africa, Mr. Masayoshi Matsushita.

In brief comments, Ambassador Gbeho spoke about the partnership between the ECOWAS Commission and UNIDO, including assistance for the Center for Renewable Energy in Praia, Cape Verde which was inaugurated on 6th July 2010. He then requested the technical assistance of UNIDO for the development of the proposed regional center on solar energy. The Chief Technical Adviser of the ECOWAS West Africa Quality Programme, Mr. Mpoko Bokanga, who was part of the delegation, briefed Ambassador Gbeho on the Programme, which is financed by the European Union and implemented by UNIDO. The Programme is designed to assist ECOWAS member states and Mauritania to put in place a harmonized regional and national quality infrastructure that can provide manufacturing enterprises with services for standardization, conformity assessment, metrology and accreditation to strengthen the competitiveness of the West Africa region in international trade.

After the briefing, the President assured the Director General of UNIDO of full support for the Programme, which he said, will enable greater market integration in the ECOWAS region and a better participation of ECOWAS member states in the upcoming Economic Partnership Agreements being negotiated with the European Union. Ambassador Gbeho accepted an invitation by Dr. Yumkella's invitation to visit UNIDO Headquarters in Vienna in October 2010. By the end of 2011, 24 laboratories across the 16 countries of West Africa would have been assisted under the programme to attain international accreditation for product testing and will have equipped metrology laboratories with basic equipment for calibration. The Programme also seeks to promote the harmonization of standards for key products, strengthen the capacity for conformity assessment, and encourage the adoption of quality management systems and compliance with safety and quality standards by product manufacturers and service providers.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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