Accra, Dec. 15, GNA - Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Regional Cooperation and NEPAD on Monday said the changing relationships between regions, countries and sub-regions as a result of the "twin forces" of globalisation and liberalization has placed ECOWAS at a crossroad. "We can on one hand continue the same policies that have increasingly marginalized our sub-region and impoverished our citizens, continue with our rhetoric of integration while we continue to wage wars and dissipate our meagre national resources on war and conflict resolution," he said.

Dr Apraku stated at the opening of the 51st ECOWAS Council of Ministers session in Accra, which is preceding the 27th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government ECOWAS scheduled for the December 19 to elect its chairman.

The two-day meeting of the Council would consider the annual report of the Executive Secretary, the report on the status of ratification of the ECOWAS revised treaty, Protocols and Conventions.

The Council would also consider memoranda on the implementation of NEPAD, the eradication of polio in Member States, and the terms of reference for a proposed study on the enhancement of the powers and privileges of the ECOWAS Parliament and the direct elections of its Members.

Dr Apraku, who is the Chairman of the Council said it was a paradox for the leaders in the sub-region to continue to talk about free trade, while at the same time erecting new barriers and check-points that frustrate economic operators and business people within the region. He chastised regional leaders for trumpeting and making projections about the benefits of an integrated West Africa with 250 million people and yet do not give the needed attention to the implementation of the ECOWAS Trade Liberation Scheme (ETLS), Community Levy and other protocols that would help actualise those benefits.

He urged member states to seek the best ways of accelerating the economic integration of the West Africa saying, "implementing the ETLS, the Community Levy, the Inter-State Road Transit Protocol and all other protocols would give real meaning and practical effect to ECOWAS integration goals."

Dr Apraku noted that the collective capabilities of members far exceed the challenges that the sub-region faces stressing "with tenacity, singleness of purpose and goodwill we can make ECOWAS successful".

In a welcoming address, the Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, said sufficient efforts had not been made to reap the benefit of the regional body and its approach to economic development.

He, therefore, appealed to members to strive to orient West Africans towards integration and development, move away from conflict and regional instability, impoverishment and marginalisation.

"The enormity of the task of moving our countries from their current structurally disarticulated national economies and low level of development to a middle-income integrated economy cannot be over-emphasised, he said.

Dr Chambas called for a change of attitude and approach to the conduct of public affairs by sub-regional development actors and economic policy-makers.

He therefore, urged members to reflect on the many socio-economic challenges facing the sub-region, review of the equally many opportunities that ECOWAS had created to enhance economic development. Mrs Nellie Taylor of the Gambia, the New Financial Controller, was sworn into office.

This is the first time that the ECOWAS structure has a Financial Controller after the position had been scrapped eight years ago.