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West Africa meet Brazil in a good platform

THEIR meetings have become somewhat plethoric. But so too is the gamut of problems that they confront year in year out. Not even the introduction of mid-year summits seem to have lightened the weight of the hydra headed nature of the issues of integration which confront the people of West Africa and on account of which their leaders gather.
And these leaders have just risen from yet another of their mid-year summit in Sal Island, Cape Verde, a country which won great renown in Africa in the fight for freedom through the thoughts and actions of its illustrious leader, Amilcar Cabral.
They agreed among others, on new initiatives that should boost their economic and political cooperation as they focus on addressing the issues of poverty, food security, environment, renewable energy, capacity building and political dialogue.
So penetrating and irresistible has been the Brazilian economic incursion that a conference of leaders of nations in Africa and South America practically conceded to Brazil the task of charting a new economic path for the rest of the countries.
Indeed, it was the legendary Brazilian writer turned diplomat Alberto Da Costa e Silva who once mused that the vast ocean that separates the African continent and South America is actually just a river-The Atlantic River!
So, anyone familiar with how Indonesia and Malaysia burst the block will soon be vividly confronted by the story of Brazil as the other nation in the triumvirate that leapt from the third unto the first world almost without a transition.
The South American giant with a population of 188 million plus is the emerging economy at the moment. Indeed it is the most talked about by citizens of countries in North America where the giants USA and Canada are gradually becoming wary of another economic power.
It must also be borne in mind that Brazil is the largest and most populous country in South America and the fifth largest in the world in both area and population.
Brazil's diverse industries range from automobiles, steel and petrochemicals to computers, aircraft, and consumer goods and amount to one-third of the GDP. With the increased economic stability provided by the Plano Real, Brazilian and multinational businesses have invested heavily in new equipment and technology, a large proportion of which has been purchased from North American enterprises.
Today, we are told that Brazil has a diverse and sophisticated services industry as well. During the early 1990s, the banking sector amounted to as much as 16% of GDP. Although undergoing a major overhaul, Brazilian financial services industry provides local businesses with a wide range of products and is attracting numerous new entrants, including U.S. financial firms, while the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro stock exchanges are undergoing a consolidation.
Following the rise of China, a country that is now making tremendous in-roads into Africa, on her own terms, diplomatic watchers have for years pressed for a swift engagement with Brazil by the developing economies in the southern hemisphere to make for a mutually defined investment format unlike the current gale from the Asian giant.
So for observers of the new wind of transcontinental cooperation, this would not be the first time that ECOWAS would be reaching out to Brazil for economic cooperation. In 2006, when heads of state and government of member nations in their first ever Africa- South America (ASA) Summit converged in Abuja, they took bold steps in the building of that long expected bridge which will unite one shore of that "river Atlantic" with the other and accepted to be guided by the Brazilian experience in that regard. In the end, they agreed to establish a standing cooperative body to leverage speedy south, south development assistance to member nations.
Now the special mid-term summit in Cape Verde ended with an agreement by both parties for stronger attention to be paid to their political initiatives on the promotion of political dialogue, security collaboration, private sector partnerships, improving infrastructure, capacity building and cultural exchange.
According to the communiqué which emanated from the summit, by focusing on these priorities, both regions are expected to expand, upgrade and strengthen their strategic partnership for "our mutual benefit."
the leaders said: "We express our common desire that by forging deeper ties between Brazil and ECOWAS, we would improve our capacities to cope with the development challenges, as well as to strengthen the political, social and economic institutions and the process of peace and stability-building, particularly in post-conflict countries."
The parties further said in the eight-page declaration at the end of the historic summit that the creation of a platform for political dialogue between them will constitute "a fundamental mechanism and example of South-South cooperation."
In this regard, they called for the urgent reform of the international financial system in order to make it fair, just and inclusive' and enable developing countries to be represented in the decision-making process of such institutions.
The summit, a follow-up to the Africa-South America Summit held in Abuja in November 2006, agreed to progressively uphold and open fair and free trade and investment opportunities through the promotion of two-way trade, investment and business development for their mutual benefit.
They, therefore, undertook to create new investment opportunities through partnerships between businessmen from the two sides, particularly in the areas of bio fuels, industrial processing of agricultural products and tourism. 
In order to give expression to their proposed cooperation in the area of transport, the parties agreed to "deepen our cooperation in the area of air transport in order to improve regular air transport services between Brazil and ECOWAS Member States. Consequently, they directed the ECOWAS Commission and the relevant institutions in Brazil to convene a meeting of their national aviation authorities to discuss the modalities for such a cooperation including the expansion of existing air transport arrangements and the signing of new ones.
Both parties also committed themselves to cooperate in the promotion of clean and sustainable energy and to support the activities of the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy, which is based in Praia, Cape Verde.
One significant turn of event, however, was the endorsement by the heads of state of an initiative by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal to enable the region harness its solar energy potentials through the construction of solar power plants that will provide cheap energy as a complementary source for meeting West Africa's energy needs.
Wade's presentation reiterated the proposal at the Copenhagen World Summit on Climate Change for Africa to commit to solar energy not only because of its availability but also because it is a less expensive source of energy that would help improve the competitiveness of the continent's industries. 


as evidence of support for President Wade's initiative, the regional leaders urged each Member State to attach technical and financial experts to President Wade "in view of establishing the Commission on solar power that shall operate under his chairmanship and authority."
It was on the strength of the food security agenda in Sal that the ECOWAS chairman and Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan said at the summit:      "With regard to potential food crisis in the sub-region, ECOWAS had enunciated the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP), which was adopted by the Summit of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government on January 19, 2005. The policy is expected to implement the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP/NEPAD) in West Africa. As you are all aware, the ultimate goal is to ensure that agriculture is productive and competitive not only within the community markets but also internationally. It is expected to guarantee food security as well as serve as a source of decent income for its operators. This is a highly commendable step in addressing food crisis within the sub-region."
But Jonathan also spoke of other challenges: "In addition to the challenge of conflicts and instability in our sub-region and instability which I have devoted so much time to address, we are faced with other challenges which, if not confronted frontally May yet erode the successes we may have achieved on other fronts and indeed jeopardize our march towards integration."
The challenges were identified as the menace of trans-border crimes like human and illicit drug trafficking, proliferation of small arms and light weapons and corruption.
The president of the ECOWAS Commission Ambassador Victor Gbeho gave assurance that the commission would be alive to its responsibilities.
"I am well aware that I came to ECOWAS as President of its Commission at a critical time in its history when its objectives as set out in its Vision 2020 are likely to be threatened by the fact that both the Chairman of the Authority and I are new. But, with the reputed guidance of the Chairman, I trust that our organisation will overcome all of its temporary handicaps"
The President of Cape Verde Pedro Verona Rodrigues Pires called for concerted efforts in the fight against neo-colonialism now deeply fingered as one of the underlying causes of underdevelopment of the sub-region.
He said: "We are particularly pleased that this ECOWAS / Brazil Meeting is taking place in Cape Verde. The political moment is the most appropriate and I believe the place is too. Well, Brazil and Cape Verde maintain secular relations. Both were colonies of the former Portuguese empire. Cape Verde served as a center of acclimation of Mediterranean plant and animal speciesen route to Brazil, and also of Brazilian species transferred to Europe."
On the work that needs to be done, as has once been suggested by Brazilian president Lula Da Silva, "Bio-fuels like ethanol, bio-diesel and H-Bio have huge potential for bringing agricultural and energy revolutions to the regions. For West Africa and indeed the entire continent, they may as well be the key to a new development model as they diversify the energy blend, generate many new jobs, keep rural people on their farms and contribute positively to our country's foreign trade. After all the talk, it is therefore time for action."

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