ECOWAS and America’s GE Corporation are to explore areas of
cooperation,including in energy projects and infrastructure development
to boost regionaltrade integration.
This was a key outcome of a meeting between officials of the
ECOWAS Commission and a GE delegation which paid a courtesy call on the
Commission’s VicePresident, Dr. Toga Gayewea McIntosh in Abuja on Thursday,
16th May 2013.
Receiving the four-member delegation led by Mr. Karan
Bhatia, GE’s VicePresident and Senior Counsel, Global Government Affairs and
Policy, Dr. McIntosh, on behalf of the President of the Commission, said
the new managementat the Commission was calibrating its priorities for
effective balance betweenpeace and security and economic development, to deliver on
its mandate.
He explained that the inability of individual countries to
harness the region’svast resources makes integration inevitable, and especially
through public-private partnerships.
The Vice President named energy, transportation, oil and
gas, health care and capacity building, as the potential areas of collaboration
and partnershipbetween ECOWAS and GE.
Both sides agreed that the point of entry for this
partnership could be throughthe programmes and activities of the Cape Verde-based ECOWAS
Centre forRenewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREE) and other
non-carbon basedenergy projects, including hydro and solar.
They also agreed that potential areas of engagement could be
through tradeexpansion and integration leveraging on the Commission’s
investment friendlypolicy and investment code, which will soon be finalized.
On oil and gas, Dr. McIntosh said the extension of the West
African GasPipeline Project to more ECOWAS Member States is in progress
and GE would beinvited to join other partners if the need arises.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Bhatia said that GE shared
ECOWAS’ goals onregional integration, which are in consonance with the
company’s shift in focusin the past five years to infrastructure, including the
manufacturing andconstruction of power generation plants, health care
equipment suited to theWest African market, as well as aviation assets, and oil and
gas.
For GE with an asset base of US$160 billion, “it is not just
about market and trade, we are also involved in human capacity development,”
he said, addingthat this was necessary to create the requisite indigenous
capacity that willdrive economic growth and regional integration.
Both sides agreed to follow up discussions on the areas of
cooperation and mutually beneficial partnerships.
Mr. Bhatia is on a two-day visit to Nigeria for talks with
various business leaders and stakeholders in the country.
Also on the GE delegation were Mr. Nils Tcheyan, Director,
Government Affairsand Policy, GE Africa, Mr. Del Renigar, Senior Counsel,
Global GovernmentAffairs and Policy, Africa, Middle East and South Asia, and
Mr. Olaseni Ashiru,Government Affairs and Policy, West Africa.
On the ECOWAS side were Mr. Alfred Braimah, Director,
Private Sector, and officials from the External Relations and Communication
Director
Released By ECOWAS Department Of Information.
