Central Africa plans trade zone

War in the region has damaged its infrastructure

A group of 11 Central African countries have announced they will set up a free trade area by the end of 2007.

The plan tops a programme intended to revitalise the Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC), a grouping seen by some as moribund.

"We will do our utmost to achieve... a fully operational free trade zone by 31 December 2007," CEEAC and 11 heads of state said in a declaration.

A majority of the 11 have economies which have been ravaged by conflict.

Opportunities

If the free trade plan goes ahead, CEEAC said, the region offered "a dynamic and attractive market of 100 million consumers, which would promote the immense potential of the region".

CEEAC MEMBERS Angola Burundi Cameroon Central African Republic Chad DR Congo Republic of Congo Equatorial Guinea Gabon Rwanda Sao Tome and Principe

It might also help end the region's image as the weakest link in the continent, said Denis Sassou-Nguesso, President of the Republic of Congo and host of the meeting at which the plan was formulated.

Also on the list of priorities agreed at the meeting in Brazzaville was more action on the Aids epidemic, implementation of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) and promotion of gender equality.

On Aids, the 11 countries committed themselves to cutting tax and customs costs on anti-Aids medication.

Tough history

The new declaration amounts to an attempt to breathe new life into an institution which has been dormant, as even its leaders admit.

"This is really a relaunch," CEEAC Secretary-General Louis Sylvain Goma said earlier in January at a meeting with President Sassou-Nguesso.

Gold and other resources have been abused over years of war

The armed conflicts which had ravaged many of its members, he said, meant that CEEAC "had been unable to translate its ambitions into reality".

Most of the conflicts are now more or less over, at least in official terms.

But the damage they did is still hurting the regional economies.

The biggest country in the grouping, the Democratic Republic of Congo, saw more than 3 million people die in more than half a decade of conflict since late President Mobuto Sese Seko's dictatorship ended in 1997.

Its huge natural resources have been looted by domestic factions and foreign countries, whether friend or foe of the Kinshasa government.

In Rwanda and Burundi, ethnic strife has hamstrung economic development.

And Angola's own decades-long civil war only ended in 2003, while its government has been accused by non-governmental organisations and international financial agencies of looting its oil wealth.