(DAILY MAIL) African, Indian Ocean region get 645m euros

African, Indian Ocean region get 645m euros
By NANCY MWAPE

THE European Commission (EC) has given a grant of 645 million euros to the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) and Indian Ocean (IO) regions to support the integration process.

EC commissioner for development, Louis Michel, Common market for eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) secretary general, Sindiso Ngwanya, East African Community (EAC) secretary general, Juma Volter Mwapachu, Inter-Governmental Association Development ( IGAD) executive secretary, Mahboub Malim and Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) secretary general Callixte d’Offay collectively signed the 10th European Development Fund on November 15, 2008 in Strasbourg France.

The 10th EDF envelope will intervene on regional economic integration covering regional integration policies, trade and Economic Partnership Agreements.
It will also tackle regional political problems in a coordinated approach.

Eight five percent of the resources will support deepening regional integration by fully implementing the customs union and moving towards common internal markets and eventually the monetary union that would initially cover sub regions and ultimately the whole ESA-IO region.

According to a press statement issued by COMESA, the funding is also expected to help in regulatory framework, trade liberalization process, economic and fiscal costs.

About 10 percent of the resources would targeted at strengthening political integration, cooperation process in the ESA region by building a coherent regional view on the concept of good governance, conflict prevention, and overall capacity building in areas of peace and security the statement said.

The overall objective of the 10th EDF for ESA-IO was to contribute to povery eradication and assist members in attaining the Millennium Development Goals, as enshrined in the Africa Caribbean Pacific-EC Economic Partnership Agreements.

The four regions had agreed since the ninth EDF to work together in respect of the EU’s support to the regional integration process.

Ther statement said the main drivers agreed upon were COMESA and the EAC, while IGAD and IOC focus on specifications of their member states and follow COMESA on regional economic integration agenda.