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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 28 Sep. - 4 Oct. 2000 Issue No. 501 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 28 Sep. - 4 Oct. 2000 Issue No. 501
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Flirting with integration
By Gamal Nkrumah
There is no roof yet over the African house. That was the consensus of delegates at the Third Organisation of African Unity and African Economic Community (OAU-AEC) trade ministers conference held in Cairo last week. Nevertheless, against all odds, participants unanimously pledged the careful construction of African economic integration by political means. The foundations of African economic integration were laid at the Algiers conference in September 1999 based on the Abuja Treaty establishing the AEC. And, it would be foolish to pretend, as unfortunately many of Africa's leading decision-makers have done in the past, that African economic integration is a journey toward an unknown destination.
Conflict prevention, however, is a prerequisite for African development and continental economic integration. War remains a stumbling block as it continues to pose a grave threat to Africa's development and integration efforts. The continent is dogged by over 35 civil wars, ethnic, racial and religious conflicts and border disputes. A glaring and tragic example that gives insights into the complexities faced by African countries at war is the Eritrean-Ethiopian border dispute. "Eritrea enjoyed remarkable economic growth rates which averaged around 7.5 per cent between 1995 and 1997 -- considerably above the African average. However, after Ethiopia's blatant aggression, Eritrea's growth rates plummeted to 3.5 per cent in 1999-2000," Eritrea's Minister of Trade and Industry Ali Said Abdallah told Al-Ahram Weekly.
"The third round of the Eritrean-Ethiopian war earlier this year in June proved to be especially destructive. There are now over 1.5 million displaced Eritreans. Eritrea is a small country of barely four million people. There are no winners and losers in war. It is the ordinary Eritreans and Ethiopians who suffer the consequences of war. Infrastructural damage was colossal," the visiting Eritrean minister said. "The sustained investment and remittances of Eritreans abroad kept the Eritrean economy afloat. Three-quarters of our economy is generated by Eritreans abroad who spearhead the reconstruction effort," Abdallah said.
Eritrea's plight underscores the complexity that is Africa. The OAU has long made its historic commitment to accelerate regional economic integration. Now is the time to explore how closer economic integration might work in practice. The third OAU-AEC conference of ministers of trade was a forum to iron out the difficulties. Many continental and regional bodies were represented as well as international financial institutions.
Among the participants were representatives of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Secretariat for the Francophonie, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Egypt's Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade Yousef Boutros Ghali stressed the critical importance of resolving Africa's debt crisis. Indeed he said that he would be pressing for the writing off of 90 per cent of Africa's debts at the 55th annual meeting of the IMF and WB in Prague scheduled to open 26 September. It is interesting to note that Trevor Manuel, the chief architect of the economic policy of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, is chairing the Prague 2000 IMF-WB meeting.
In Cairo, the keynote address of the 3rd OAU-AEC trade ministers meeting delivered by Egypt's Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and the speeches that followed have revived the debt debate. Ebeid tackled other serious matters as well. He said that the major challenge facing African countries is how to accelerate their growth rates even further. "The projections of international institutions indicate an increase in the total economic growth rates of Africa this year to 4.4 per cent as compared to 2.3 per cent in 1999," Ebeid told participants. After decades of economic stagnation and decline African economies are starting to recover lost ground.
Another issue that featured prominently was developing intra-African trade through regional cooperation and integration. A recent study published by Afreximbank stated that inter-African trade grew by 55 per cent between 1994 and 1999, or from US$18.5 billion to US$28.6 billion. Ambassador Lawrence Agubuzu, assistant secretary-general of the OAU for Community Affairs, stated that inter-African trade continued to be "dismal" -- accounting for 10-12 per cent of the continent's global trade. "Our efforts at regional integration, therefore, need to be doubled if this unacceptable situation is to be reversed." But his message was not all gloom and doom. "It is gratifying to note that the Trade Protocol in the SADC [South African Development Community] region came into effect in January 2000, and COMESA will launch its free trade area by the end of October 2000," noted Agubuzu.
None of this will be easy. Closer economic union does require the relinquishing of sovereignty to a degree. But it does not necessarily lead to the erosion of national sovereignty over domestic matters best decided by each individual OAU member state. That is why the 3rd OAU-AEC conference was ambitious and cannot just be brushed aside as a technical fix.
"African economic integration cannot operate in a vacuum. The IMF and WB are now seriously pushing for the integration of the continent to facilitate Africa's integration into the global economy. Integration, therefore, must be seen within the context of globalisation and the WTO-steered attempt to consolidate global markets," Yao Graham told the Weekly. Graham is head of the African Secretariat of the Third World Network (TWN), one of a few non-governmental organisations that participated in the conference.
A majority of African states are moving away from one-party political systems to Western-style democratic pluralism. But with widespread poverty, political instability still lurks perilously behind the façades of the nascent democracies. So, can a change in a country's government derail the continental integration process? "A commitment to regional economic integration cuts across the political divide. Moreover, the private sector is working in tandem with government," Dan Abodakpi, Ghana's minister of trade and industry, told the Weekly. Still, the role of government remains pivotal. Abodakpi explained that steps are now being taken to implement monetary unity in West Africa. "Nigeria, Ghana and a number of other West African countries will institute a common currency shortly. They are also speeding up the economic integration plans of the Economic Community of West African States." But, in Abodakpi's view what lends credibility to current plans to speed up regional economic integration in Africa is the involvement of the private sector. "The more involved role played by the private sector in augmenting the efforts of African governments to facilitate African economic integration is significant because it is a new departure."
