They met this Wednesday 5 June 2024 in Yaounde, at a Ministerial Retreat to discuss the restructuring of the Regional Economic Communities in Central Africa, under the Chair of the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development of the Republic of Cameroon, Mr Alamine Ousmane Mey, also acting as Chairman of the Steering Committee for the Harmonisation of Regional Economic Communities in Central Africa (COPIL/CER-AC, in French)

These well-attended meetings stem from one of the resolutions of the Council of Ministers of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), held on 29 June 2023 in Libreville, Gabon. Essentially made up of the Ministers of the 11 Central African States in charge of the economy, finance, and integration, as well as lead officials from community institutions, the participants were briefed on the objectives of restructuring the CERs in Central Africa, to ensure a shared understanding and greater ownership of the process by all stakeholders.
At the opening of the session, the Chairperson of the COPIL/CER-AC stressed that the course of harmonisation had been set by the highest authorities in Central Africa, to make the institutional architecture of the sub-region more relevant, more efficient, and better adapted to the financial constraints facing the States in this geographical area. “Through harmonisation and pooling, we could foster integration more effectively, thereby boosting economic exchanges which have been limited over the past four decades and are not adequately contributing to the change our populations desire”, Mr Alamine Ousmane Mey declared. And this involves a review of the founding legal instruments that set up the existing integration organisations. According to the Cameroon Minister of the Economy, “in the current global context marked by fast and far-reaching geopolitical, geostrategic and geo-economic change, it is essential to reconsider our approach to economic, social and financial integration”.
During this important meeting, participants were given 4 presentations dealing respectively with a reminder of diagnosis of the state of integration in Central Africa; the match between ongoing reforms in the RECs and the rationalisation of the RECs in Central Africa; the issues and prospects of the process of harmonising the RECs in Central Africa at the political, economic, financial, managerial and institutional levels; and the progress of the harmonisation process. Fruitful and intense discussions followed the presentations.