Special Report: Year-ender 2006
by Shi Shouhe
LUSAKA, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- There might be still a long way to go to achieve economic integration in Africa, the least developed continent having been tormented by natural disasters, diseases and conflicts.
Yet some progress made towards integration in various economic groupings at regional levels has raised hopes that the continent's economic convergence is not merely a dream.
Regional bodies such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the continent's largest economic grouping with 20 member states, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the East Africa Community (EAC) are all striving to put economic integration on a fast track so as to derive maximum benefits from it.
Most recently on Nov. 30, the EAC expanded its turf by drawing in two new members, Rwanda and Burundi, to make it a five-member grouping also including Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with a total population of over 100 million and gross domestic product (GDP) of 50 billion U.S. dollars.
The move is a clear indication of EAC's ambition to enlarge its Customs Union which was launched in early 2005 and to form a regional political federation.
Earlier in mid-November, the COMESA held its 11th summit in Djibouti with leaders promising to further integration by expanding the Free Trade Area (FTA) and preparing for the Customs Union to be launched in 2008.
The summit has agreed to set up a COMESA Fund to compensate the revenue loss suffered by FTA member states as a result of tariff deduction or cancellation.
Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh said Africa could not achieve economic development without integration, infrastructure, free trade or free movement of goods and persons.
"We want all the barriers to be removed so that we can have the free market and economic integration. All these questions are discussed in every summit and some countries have accepted to lift these barriers, others are waiting, others are discussing and others are waiting for compensation. That's why we now create a COMESA Fund for compensation and development," Guelleh said. The COMESA has implemented about 70 percent of the protocols on the removal of visa restrictions among its members, according to COMESA Secretary-General Erastus Mwencha.
Like COMESA, the SADC is also pursuing the establishment of free trade area by 2008 and Customs Union by 2010. An extraordinary summit was held in late October in South Africa to review the status of economic integration in the region and to propose measures to accelerate the implementation of the SADC economic integration agenda.
Three member countries, Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, signed during the summit the Protocol on Finance and Investment in consolidating their efforts towards increasing foreign direct investment.
Ten out of the 14 SADC member countries have so far signed the protocol, which would promote the region as a single investment area rather than a collection of individual countries. The protocol would also complement the move towards the FTA which SADC considers as the cornerstone in improving the economic environment as well as the attractiveness of the region as a prime investment destination.
CHALLENGES REMAIN
As the world shrinks further to a global village, the African continent is still facing great challenges in achieving economic integration at a wider sphere and at a deeper level. Unbalanced economic development is embodied by South Africa, the continent's economic heavyweight with a per capita GDP of over 4,500 dollars, and the impoverished inland country Malawi, of which the per capita GDP is no more than 200 dollars.
The tremendous economic gap between different African countries made it hard for them to dialogue at a common platform thus hindering the integration of their economies as one.
Membership overlapping is another hurdle for African countries to leap over before they can reach wider economic integration. Eight out of the 14 SADC member countries are also members to COMESA, which again contains four EAC nations excluding Tanzania.
Overlapping membership is contrary to the World Trade Organization rules which stipulate that a member country of a given regional economic grouping should not belong to more than one customs union.
As the COMESA and SADC are both seeking to launch customs unions, those countries with double membership have to make their decision on which family to choose to belong to.
Regional tensions and internal conflicts are also posing a challenge to the economic harmony of the continent. Political situation in Democratic Republic of Congo is still volatile after the country's presidential election while the border row between Eritrea and Ethiopia remains unsolved, not to mention the fragile situation in Sudan's Darfur region. "We have a problem of instability in the region, and it can affect trade and free movement," said Mwencha.
Rome is not built in one day, so is Africa's economic integration, which needs more efforts and contribution from various economic communities that are the building blocks for an economically integrated Africa.
