Cote d'Ivoire: ECOWAS leaders move to link West Africa with Nepad Paris AFP (World Service) in English 1023 GMT 18 May 02 AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Saturday, May 18, 2002 Journal Code: 2131 Language: ENGLISH Record Type: FULLTEXT Document Type: Daily Report; News Word Count: 580 YAMOUSSOUKRO, May 18 (AFP) - West African leaders, meeting in Ivory Coast, have agreed to give their regional economic community ECOWAS a new executive secretariat to focus on joint development within Africa's recovery plan. The decision was announced in a statement after a summit here Friday among seven heads of state who discussed how to link the west African region into the continental plan, the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will become "the regional organisation responsible for coordinating and following up on the implementation of NEPAD programmes and for allocating appropriate resources", a statement released in Ivory Coast's administrative capital said. Apart from the secretariat, which will be the "focal point" for regional NEPAD-related work, the leaders agreed to set up an investment guarantee fund to be placed with the ECOWAS investment and development bank. They also decided to "harmonise transport policies within ECOWAS", which will in practical terms mean developing and linking rail networks and jointly regulating maritime traffic. Host President Laurent Gbagbo stressed the importance of such infrastructure, "without which there can be no development". ECOWAS heads of state said they would "as soon as possible undertake priority investment to develop a regional market." The meeting was also attended by the presidents of Benin, Cape Verde, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo, as well as the chairman of the African Development Bank, Omar Kabbaj. NEPAD combines plans presented by presidents Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of South Africa and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. The package was approved by the Organisation of African Unity at its last summit and has so far met with a favourable response from donor nations since it is seen as making good governance in Africa as a vital criteria for economic assistance and cooperation. The plan is also based on the principle that aid and debt relief are not sufficient to ensure sustained development, and encourages on private sector investors to help pull Africa out of poverty. The leaders gathered in Yamoussoukro urged all ECOWAS nations to swiftly ratify and implement a wide-ranging NEPAD protocol which has already been approved by heads of state across the continent. This provides for conflict management and peace-keeping mechanisms, with measures on good governance, democracy, fighting corruption, cracking down on money laundering and the proliferation of small arms. It also aims to combat traffic in drugs and in human beings sold as cheap or slave lavour. Kabbaj and other finance officials suggested moves clearly to explain and implement standards drawn up by the NEPAD steering committee in the monetary, financial, tax and accounting domains -- an idea also adopted by the heads of state. NEPAD will be a major theme at next month's summit of the Group of Eight (G8) nations in Canada. ECOWAS, whose current secretariat is based in the Nigerian capital Abuja, was given a year to draw up a plan of action to harmonise institutional and regulatory systems across the region. The body groups Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.