Ethiopian Review

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Deeper regional integration is crucial to address the long-standing structural weakness of African economies, and thereby enable the continent tackle the current global economic crisis, UN Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) 2009 Annual Report on Africa indicated.

At the launch of the report subtitled “Strengthening Regional Economic Integration for Africa’s Development” in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Economic Affairs Officer with UNCTAD Janvier Nkurunziza said on Thursday regional integration is essential for ensuring sustained development in the continent, especially during the current global economic crisis.

Better links between countries, ranging from paved roads to banking cooperation, are needed to spur mutual economic growth, he said, weak physical and institutional infrastructure is the key obstacle to increasing intra-African trade and investment.

The creation of several institutions for economic integration in Africa in the last two decades was expected to boost intra-African trade in goods, he said, However, trade increased to 9 percent until 2007 from 2 percent during early 1980s.

Africa’s poor performance hides the fact that the region could increase its intra-African trade substantially, if some key constraints, particularly infrastructure, were addressed, the reported indicated.

“An investment of 32 billion US dollars (made) to improve the main intra-African road network could generate around 250 billion US dollars in trade over a period of 15 years,” it said.

African countries need to strengthen their regional physical infrastructure such as roads, railways, telecommunication and regional airlines with a view to boosting regional integration, the reported suggested.

Physical infrastructure will need to be complemented by improvements in soft infrastructure, including policy harmonization at the regional level, trade facilitation, efficiency in border procedures and the adoption of national policies that help rather than hamper the process of integration, the report added.

- ENA