Invited to attend the Annual Meetings 2016 of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Group in Washington, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr. Marcel A. de SOUZA met the directors representing the African countries of the Group II.
With its partners, the President De Souza sought support within the framework of the implementation of major projects of regional integration in West Africa. The Directors reaffirmed their full support for ECOWAS, which they recognize as a reference regional integration organization in Africa. They promised to advocate and strengthen the cooperation projects.
President De Souza and his team met the World Bank Vice President for Africa Region and had exchanges on the Community Development Programme (CDP) with the Directors of Operations and the Ambassadors of ECOWAS Member States in Washington. During the discussion, Mr. de Souza informed on the ECOWAS plans to hold in March 2017 in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), a round table of donors, in collaboration with Member States and Partners.
The Bank while welcoming the leadership of ECOWAS, has sought to strengthen its cooperation with ECOWAS in the context of improving intra-regional trade, particularly through the interconnection of regional exchanges, transport facilitation, the fight against non-tariff barriers and the implementation of the biometric identity card. Technical teams from the World Bank and the ECOWAS Commission will continue discussions to identify concrete areas of cooperation between the two institutions. In this context, the World Bank has already appointed the Chief Economist for the Africa Region, Dr. Albert G. Zeufack to lead discussions with the ECOWAS Commission.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission also met the Director of the IMF African Department and the President of the Islamic Development Bank.
ECOWAS delegation was composed of Mr. Mamadou Traoré, Commissioner for Macroeconomic Policy and Economic Research, Mr. Koné Tanou, Permanent Representative of ECOWAS in New York and Mr. Lassané Kaboré, Director of Multilateral Surveillance.