ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) have vowed to further strengthen their collaboration towards the development and prosperity of Africa.
This has come at a time when the newly appointed Executive Secretary of ECA, Vera Songwe, met and held talks with the Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission, Thomas Kwesi Quartey, according to a statement from ECA on Monday.
Marking her second day in office, the new ECA chief on Friday met and held talks with representatives of the AU Commission (AUC), the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation, and with the dean of the diplomatic corps in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.
Stating that the AU Commission has had great working relations with ECA over the past years, the Deputy Chairperson has expressed that the pan-African bloc is keen towards more collaboration with ECA.
"We look forward to absolute cooperation with you and your team," he has told the ECA chief.
The two sides have discussed education, migration, industrialization, the AU Reform, domestic resource mobilization and other issues pertinent to Africa's transformation.
The ECA Executive Secretary expressed her commitment to carrying on with the good working relations between the two institutions, stating, "having the ECA and AU working closely together makes for a wealth of knowledge and great potential to change the continent."
She has also expressed her desire to see more space for women in the AU agenda.
Songwe, who arrived in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa Wednesday, was appointed earlier this year by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, and took over from former Executive Secretary, Carlos Lopes.
The Cameroonian economist and banking executive is the first woman to ever serve the post, and she officially took office last Thursday.
