Adopt mechanisms to promote regional integration - Hannah Tetteh

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Hanna Serwaah Tetteh, has asked public sector workers to adopt effective mechanisms to address issues hindering regional integration.

She said since the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), established in 1975, had undergone a series of transformation, “there is the need for public sector workers, as implementing agents of the various protocols, to have a better appreciation of issues relating to regional integration”.

Addressing participants in a workshop for public sector workers in Accra yesterday, Ms Tetteh called on stakeholders to be abreast of the latest happenings within the community in order to deepen their commitment to the regional integration process.

The workshop was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, with support from Media Response, a non governmental organisation, and ECOWAS.

Thirty participants, comprising representatives of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), traders’ associations and the media, attended the workshop.

According to Ms Tetteh, the workshop was to equip public sector workers with well-packaged information on current developments within ECOWAS.

As part of activities aimed at promoting the participation of the citizenry in the regional integration process in West Africa, she said her ministry organised a sensitisation workshop for public sector workers on their role in enhancing regional integration.

She urged the participants to team up strongly and work as a united front to improve regional integration towards the effective growth of the African continent.

In his welcome address, the Director of the Africa and Regional Integration Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Kodzo Alabo, underscored the need for stakeholders to intensify their efforts at eliminating the barriers hindering the growth of the African continent.

He said promoting effective regional integration was one key way of enhancing African trade and growth, adding that “workshops of this nature will sensitise workers to understand their roles and obligations in regional integration”.The Executive Director of Media Response, Mr Samuel Dodoo, expressed the hope that the workshop would remind public sector workers of their role in regional integration.

By Dominic Moses Awiah