ECA/World Bank Conclude Joint Workshop
By Andrew Allimadi, ECA, 17 September 2004

A joint workshop between the Trade and Regional Integration Division (TRID) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the World Bank took place on Friday 17 September at ECA headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The workshop reviewed the forthcoming World Bank publication, "Global Economic Prospects 2005." The theme of this publication is Trade, Regionalism and Development.

In his opening address to the workshop, Hakim Ben Hammouda, the director of TRID, welcomed all participants to ECA. He thanked the World Bank for giving ECA the opportunity to examine the draft before its publication, and said: "We are sure that the final version of this report will take account of some of our views and our African perspective when looking at the issue of trade and preferences."

During the workshop, one of the lead authors of the report, Richard Newfarmer, said conducting workshops to review publications is a new phenomenon at the World Bank. He thanked ECA for the numerous positive and constructive comments, and said his team had learnt a lot form the experience. Newfarmer also added that ECA's recent publication on regional integration titled: Assessing Regional Integration in Africa, is a very informative document and will be cited by the 2005 edition of the Global Economic Prospects. Click here for the full text of Mr. Ben Hammouda's speech.