STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. ERASTUS MWENCHA DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION AT THE SIXTH CONFERENCE OF AFRICAN MINISTERS IN CHARGE OF INTEGRATION (COMAI VI), INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL, PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS, 18-19 APRIL 2013
Honourable Dr Ahmed Rashid Beebeejaun, GCSK, FRCP, Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Energy and Public Utilities,
Honourable Dr Arvin Boolell, GOSK, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade,
Mr Carlos Lopes, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
Honorable Ministers,
Your Excellencies Ambassadors,
Representatives of Regional Economic Communities,
Representatives of African Development Bank,
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am delighted to be with you all here in the beautiful city of Port Louis to welcome you to the Sixth Conference of the African Ministers in Charge of Integration. I bring you greetings from Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission who, due to circumstances beyond her control, is unable to attend this meeting. Allow me to express our profound gratitude to His Excellency Kailash Purryag, President of the Republic of Mauritius; the Government and the People of this beautiful country for hosting this important Conference at very short notice; for the warm hospitality accorded to all the delegations and excellent arrangements made for its success. Let me seize this opportunity to convey our deepest condolences to the people of Mauritius and families affected by the recent floods.
By hosting this event, the Government of Mauritius has clearly demonstrated her resilience in the face of adversity, as well as her commitment to the realization of the African Union vision of an “integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa.
Before I continue, I wish to acknowledge the presence of Honourable Dr Ahmed Rashid Beebeejaun, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Public Utilities of the Republic of Mauritius, for finding time, despite his very busy schedule, to officially open the event.
I would also like to acknowledge the presence of Honourable Dr Arvin Boolell, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade. Further, allow me to extend a special welcome to all our partners present here who have been closely accompanying the African Union on its quest to structurally transform the economies of our continent, attain tangible results in our integration efforts as well construct our own narrative and lead the discussions relating to Africa’s future prospects.
To this end, I wish to commend their efforts to align their programmes and support in a manner that better serves the needs of the continent.
OAU/AU 50th Anniversary Celebrations
• Theme of "Pan Africanism and African Renaissance": Reflection on the road travelled, celebrate successes and the contribution of the founders, but also take stock of the present, begin preparations for a long-term perspective, "Africa in 2063" as part of the celebrations and to guide our future development on the course for the next 50 years.
• Two forms: May 25th celebrations and Yearlong celebrations: carry out activities to continue debates on Africa's journey and future development agenda.
• To this end, the theme of this year’s Conference the ‘Governance of Africa’s Integration’, is extremely pertinent, timely and important, as it will contribute to discussions on the future growth of the continent.
• Integration is crucial if Africa is to effectively compete in a highly competitive and crowded global economy and sustain its current growth performance.
Purpose of Meeting
Excellencies
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
• To review progress made in implementing Africa’s integration agenda since the last Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2011.
• Last year's Conference considered the "Study on Quantification of Scenarios on Rationalization of the RECs" and recommended that other RECs draw inspiration from the Tripartite Arrangement between EAC, COMESA and SADC.
• Notably, the Conference also mandated the Commission to devote one of the annual AU Summits to development and integration. The latter of which is a significant milestone in bringing economic development matters, including integration, to the attention of Heads of State on an annual basis.
• Consultations and discussion on the preparations have began and it is anticipated that the Commission will convene the first Assembly of the Union on Development and Integration in 2014.
• Following the AU Summit Decision on COMAI V which calls for the emulation by other RECs of the EAC-COMESA-SADC Tripartite Arrangement, the Commission has received endorsement from ECOWAS, CEN-SAD and ECCAS to begin the process of working towards a 2nd bloc of combined RECs.
• First consultations took place yesterday, April 17, 2013, here in Mauritius with the objective of identifying sectors and pillars that will constitute the new formation.
• This formation will provide added impetus to addressing the issue of overlapping membership, help to foster policy and programme harmonization, synchronization and coordination as promoted within the Minimum Integration Programme, support the creation of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and accelerate the establishment of the African Economic Community.
• Consider Commission flagship reports: Report on the Status of Integration in Africa as well as a Report on the Implementation of Recommendations from the Fifth Conference of African Ministers in Charge of Integration. Reports are used to annually monitor the state of the continent’s integration process vis-a-vis the Abuja Treaty, the recommendations of Ministers, sector progress, policy harmonization as well as meeting the strategic objectives of the Union
• However, to ensure a universal monitoring system, it is my hope that you will endorse the establishment of an Integration Observatory to aide our monitoring and evaluation efforts, promote benchmarking and scoring of progress for enhanced accountability.
• Commend all the RECs and Member States for the support they continue to render to the African Union Commission and enhanced collaboration, communication and coordination on matters that are key in accelerating the realization of the AU vision.
• This was evidenced at a Retreat that took place in March 2013, between the AUC leadership and the RECs in Durban, South Africa, at which issues of key strategic interest to both parties were discussed. It is our hope that such forums for engagement will become the norm in order to ensure continuous harmonization of our common positions on economic and development matters, while also strengthening our collaboration across the various sectors.
Regional Integration
Excellencies
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,
• Regional integration is of paramount importance to Africa’s survival in an ever competitive and changing global economy. With a growth rate of about 4.8% in 2012, World Bank reports that African economic growth is expected to rise above 5% in 2013-2015.
• With the continental population of 1 billion, distributed across 54 countries, resulting in several small, fragmented and balkanized economies, a significant youth population and an inequitable distribution of growth (averaging 4 per cent since the financial and economic crisis), deeper regional integration is an imperative for the continent’s transformation and survival.
• Deeper Regional Integration is an important pre-requisite for key aspects of structural transformation such as the promotion of industrialization, as emphasized by Ministers at the recently concluded Sixth Joint Annual Meetings of the African Union Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, which took place in Abidjan from 21-26 March 2013.
• Effective regional integration requires regional infrastructure to boost trade amongst African countries and enhance competitiveness; functional and empowered regional and continental institutions to ensure domestication of decisions at the national level, and the free flow of Africa’s human resources.
• Citizen inclusiveness is key - incorporating the voice of African people in key policy and decision making processes to ensure our integration process is citizen rather than institutionally driven.
Progress made in integration
• This year’s theme the ‘Governance of Integration’ is both timely and fitting.
• Tangible progress is being made in ECOWAS, COMESA, EAC and SADC through greater promotion of trade related infrastructure such as customs single windows (one stop border posts) and utilization of computerized customs networks across Member States
• Development in areas of transport infrastructure and power interconnection projects, as well tariff reductions (which have fallen from 16.7 per cent to 7.1 per cent from 2000-2009) and growing levels of intra-regional trade within some Communities.
• There is a greater need for governments, public and private institutions to create more jobs amongst the youth, enhance our intra and global trade performance, and strengthen the resilience of economies to vulnerabilities and exogenous shocks, while also ensuring the fruits of growth are distributed more evenly within countries.
Challenges Impeding Regional Integration in Africa
• Governance and a lack of clear implementation and accountability mechanism
• The free movement of persons across the continent remains inefficient;
• Over-reliance on donor funding for financing integration projects;
• Insufficient citizen ownership and a lack of an enabling environment for a people-centered approach to policy making.
• Low implementation rate of numerous signed and ratified, with insufficiently transposed legal texts into national legislation.
• Intra-African trade also remains low at 10-12 per cent of the continental total.
• Assessment on rate and sufficiency of current progress in light of the changing global economy so as to not repeat past errors in the next 50 years
Way Forward
Excellencies
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,
• Decision-makers must step up to the mantle by hastening the pace, depth and delivery of our integration commitments, while engaging in continuous dialogue with the African citizenry who, in themselves constitute as the main drivers of the process, breathing practicality into the functionality of integration, and on whom its impact will be felt the most – whether negative or positive
• Global financial and economic crisis should compel us to engage with each other to find modalities’ and framework for implementing decisions on national, regional and continental level.
• We need to identify innovative and sustainable financing options deriving from our own sources of revenue in support of regional and continental integration efforts, while also allowing the private sector more scope to finance integration projects and institutions.
• In this regard, I wish to commend those RECs that have in recent times made commendable progress in identifying innovative sources of financing their integration activities and programmes in spite of trade-related challenges such as poor/weak infrastructure and underutilized institutional and human capacities, which require sufficient, sustainable and predictable financing.
• Sufficient political will need to make bold decisions on pertinent issues of self-sufficiency in financing.
• In conclusion, I am confident that by the end of this Conference, we would have made a major contribution to addressing pertinent issues affecting our ability to improve and enhance the governance of our shared integration agenda.
I thank you for your kind attention and wish the meeting great success.
