Your Excellency, Mr. Denis Sassou-Nguesso, President of the Republic of Congo and current Chairman of the African Union;
Your Excellencies Heads of State and Government of the African Union;
Your Excellency Prof. Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairperson of the African Union Commission;
Your Excellency Mr. Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank;
Your Excellency Madam Frene Ginwala, Chairperson of the Global Coalition for Africa;
Excellencies;
Honourable Ministers;
Ladies and Gentlemen

I would like to start by thanking President Yahya Jammeh, the Government and the people of the Gambia for hosting this seventh ordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union and for their generous hospitality accorded to my delegation and me. I would also like to commend Prof. Alpha Konare and the staff of African Union Commission for their hard work in preparing this summit.

Your Excellencies

The theme you have chosen for this Summit, Rationalization and Regional Integration, is very important, timely and appropriate. The ultimate goal of continental integration is to allow African countries to merge their economies and pool their capacities, endowments and energies together for the development of the continent. If we are able to achieve this goal quickly, Africa can make great strides in its quest to achieve sustained and robust economic growth and poverty alleviation.

Excellencies

We have made notable progress in our attempts to integrate over the past 50 years, in particular, since the creation of the first Regional Economic Communities (RECs). The initial edition of ECA’s flagship publication on regional integration, Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA I), published in 2004, reports that some of the RECs have made significant progress in trade, communications, macroeconomic policy, and transport.

However, the study also noted that significant gaps remain between the achievements and expected goals. There are areas in which a lot needs to be done, particularly in the promotion of intra-African trade, infrastructure, macroeconomic convergence, and economic diversification. It still remains the case that transport costs in Africa are far too high. Also, we find that throughout the continent, many road, air and rail networks need substantial improvements. Additionally, existing non-tariff barriers and weak infrastructure within the continent are also among the factors attributable to the low volume of trade within Africa. All these challenges need to be addressed so as to accelerate the integration of the continent.

At the same time, we also need to bring more coherence to our regional integration architecture in order to build a solid foundation for the African Economic Community we envisage. As you know, there are presently fourteen main regional economic blocs on the continent. The African Union recognizes eight of them as regional economic communities and the remaining as inter-governmental organizations. The similar mandates and objectives of these regional groupings and the multiplicity of membership by African countries into different RECs appear to be thwarting the integration agenda of the continent. There is therefore a strong need to rationalize the regional economic grouping so as to advance and strengthen the integration agenda of the continent. This needs to be done because the presence of so many regional economic groupings spreads limited resources thin, complicates the overall continental integration process, and puts enormous strain on governments’ ability and resources to cope with diverse agendas and exigencies.

Your Excellencies

The ECA has been working on regional integration issues since its inception in 1958. It played a big part in the creation of some of the regional economic communities. In recent years, it has also assisted some of the RECs with the design of sustainable financing mechanisms, with some RECs establishing Development funds to support their programmes. I am pleased to inform you that we now plan to deepen our work and support to member States in the area of regional integration.

Indeed, it is a key element of the current exercise to reposition ECA to better respond to Africa's priorities against the background of the efforts of our Secretary General, His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, to put in place a more efficient and a coherent United Nations system.  Let me also take the opportunity to thank President Konare for his support and that of the African Union Commission towards ECA’s reform agenda, and indeed for his commitment towards fostering closer relationship between the ECA and the African Union Commission, and indeed with the African Development Bank, whose President, Donald Kaberuka,  a good friend of mine, has also been an ardent supporter and champion of our  tripartite partnership in the service of our common Member States.

In summary, under ECA’s repositioning initiative, and in line with its mandate and the African Union’s agenda, ECA will now focus on achieving results in two related areas, namely: (i) Promoting regional integration; and  (ii) meeting Africa’s special needs and challenges.

Under the first pillar, ECA will concentrate on fully supporting the African Union's efforts to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent, promote and defend African common positions and establish the necessary conditions to enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy. It will do so by promoting dialogue and undertaking analytical studies such as the series on "Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA)”. It will also vigorously promote the building of regional infrastructure. In addition, ECA will place a stronger focus on the specific needs of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) through a region-specific, multi-year partnership strategy agreed with each REC with clearly articulated results and milestones; and the establishment of more empowered Sub-Regional Offices (SROs) with increased access to the skills and resources needed to deliver the agreed results.

With regards to the second pillar - meeting Africa's special needs and challenges - ECA's work programme will focus on achieving the main objectives of NEPAD. Here, ECA’s activities will include: social development; with special focus on the Millennium Development Goals; food security and sustainable development; emerging global issues and economic development; harnessing information and communication technology; and improving governance and development management to enhance national capacity and capability and to support the APRM process.

Your Excellencies

Your deliberations at this Summit are vital to the advancement of the continent’s integration agenda. The recommendations you make could have far-reaching implications on the harmonisation and coordination of the integration architecture as we work towards the creation of the African Economic Community.  In this regard, you have before you various scenarios on the rationalization of the RECs.  The final choice is one of sensitive political decision. We know we can count on your wisdom, guidance and political courage to move the rationalization agenda forward and help build a strong African Union.

Your Excellencies

Let me conclude by assuring you that the ECA will continue to work to assist member States and the RECs, in very close partnership with the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank, in the pursuit of the noble goals of integration and development of our beloved continent.

On behalf of the ECA, I thank you all for inviting us to participate in this august assembly.  We wish you a fruitful and successful Summit.

Thank you.