Thirty-eighth session of the Commission/Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development

Closing Remarks

By K.Y. Amoako,
Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Abuja, Nigeria
15 May 2005

Honorable Ministers,
Colleagues, all

In closing this Conference, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the outstanding contributions of President Omar Kabbaj and Her Excellency Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Omar: you have provided such strong leadership to the Bank, such marvelous collaboration with me and with ECA in these meetings and so much else. Your contributions to African development will stand the test of time.

Ngozi: you have chaired these meetings with such intellectual leadership and so effectively.

I thank you sincerely for your partnership. Through you, I also want to thank the government of Nigeria and the organizing committee of this Conference for organizing this successful annual session of the Commission.

I am also grateful to all the members of the Bureau for their dedication and leadership.

And, of course, I am grateful for the outstanding panelists and speakers who so well stimulated our discussion at this Conference.

As you know, this is the last time I will address the ECA Conference of Ministers as Executive Secretary, since my ten year tenure in this post is due to end in June.

When I took on this position, these conferences had a history of very little ministerial attendance and the discussions were rather pro forma.

The fact that these conferences now attract such a high level of participation and such frank and progressive discourse is a tribute first to the quality of the delegations from member States who choose to attend.

Sometimes it is said that we in Africa have a lot of meetings. But it has been my experience that there are few times when we really compare notes across countries and with our partners in a way which is so frank and so regularly productive.

In that context, I welcome the suggestion made earlier today that ECA should play a role in facilitating processes that will enable more peer learning between ministers.

These conferences also are the result of the very hard and excellent work of the ECA's staff. That staff now has the depth and divisional leadership to routinely provide this conference with outstanding preparation.

I am proud of my staff from top to bottom. They are devoted assets for this continent.

Honorable Ministers,

Thank you very much for years of very constructive participation, for your commitment to a regional policy center which has expanded greatly under your guidance and for your comradeship.

While legally ECA is a UN body, in reality, this Conference has a critical stewardship role in guiding ECA in serving Africa. I am confident that ECA will continue to thrive with your encouragement.

This is an era of great opportunity and responsibility in our countries and in our regional institutions.

The journey with you at ECA has been marvelous and I want to thank all of you sincerely for the privilege of working with you.