Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, February 28 (ECA) - The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is continuing to work in partnership with the Government of Guinea on a number of initiatives aimed at structurally transforming the Guinean economy.

Head of Development Planning and Statistics in the Capacity Development Division, Sylvain Boko, says as part of the collaboration between the two parties, the ECA recently completed the implementation of a component of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the ECA and Guinea.

"We are happy that the development planning component is completed," said Mr. Boko. "As the ECA we started by providing training and capacity building in results-based management of development programs and projects in the country for mid to high level civil servants up to where we are now."

The ECA teams then followed-up the training by providing technical assistance in the production of a long-term development vision for the country, Guinea Vision 2040, which focuses on the its priorities in the next two decades.

"The approach was participatory so all the key stakeholders in the country were involved in the process," Mr. Boko said, adding; "The end result was the Vision 2040 document which has been finalized and presented to the government. For us it's a big achievement in the sense of contributing to the country's development process."

He said the two parties are working hard together allowing for a better implementation of the cooperation between Guinea and the ECA.

The major pillars of the Vision 2040 document, that was handed over to the government this month, are peace, unity and national solidarity, human capital development, structural transformation of the economy, the environment and urban development, governance and making Guinea a regional beacon for the outside world.

"We are still engaged with the government and all stakeholders in Guinea as there are at least two other components that we will continue to work on together; that is strengthening of the country's statistical capacity as well as supporting small enterprise development in Guinea as part of its industrialization vision," he said.

"We are also doing the same presently with Benin," said Mr. Boko. "We are providing technical support to the new Government of Benin and with them we are not only supporting the Vision but also the elaboration of their national development plan."

Some of the countries that the CDD is working with in various areas to structurally transform their economies include Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Ethiopia, Cape Verde, Egypt and Gabon.

The ECA, said Mr. Boko, operates on the basis of requests from Member States seeking expert support in a number of areas, including development of country programmes, tourism, integration of Sustainable Development Goals in national development plans, industrialization, sustainable development, gender, statistics and integration of accountability in national development processes.