EDUCATION

Opening Address by Daasebre Dr. Oti Boateng, Government Statistician and Member of the Council of State, Hotel Wangara, Accra, 9th to 20th October, 1995.

Mr. Chairman, Director of the Community Computing Centre, Distinguished Guests, Course Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen

We of the Ghana Statistical Service are delighted to accept the invitation of the management of the Community Computing Centre (CCC), Lome, to co-host this two-week course on EUROTRACE statistical software in Ghana. We wish to take this opportunity to welcome the participants representing the Member States of the ECOWAS and all other participants to Ghana.

The principal aims of establishing the ECOWAS were to promote co-operation and integration, leading to the establishment of an economic union in West Africa in order to raise the living standards of the population of the sub-region and to maintain and enhance economic stability, foster good relations among Member States and contribute to the progress and development of the African Continent.

Among the objectives adopted to realize these laudable aims of the Community are:

(a) the establishment of a common market through:

i) the harmonization of trade among Member States;

ii) the adoption of a common external tariff and a common trade policy vis-à-vis third countries;

iii) the removal, between Member States, of obstacles to the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital, and to the right of residence and establishment;

(b) the harmonization of standards and measures; and

(c) the encouragement and strengthening of relationships and the promotion of the flow of information.

The formation of an economic union creates a number of new challenges for comparable Community-wide statistical information that will promote the effective formulation and management of macro-economic policies of Member States. In the area of external trade statistics, for example, there is the problem of differences in the standard measures and coding systems in Member States. The ECOWAS sub-region also has a unique problem of trying to harmonize at least three different customs systems inherited from the colonial past. The existence of these problems hinder any effective compilation of comparable Community trade statistics.

We are happy to note that the ECOWAS Secretariat has recognized these problems and has taken steps to tackle them by establishing standard nomenclatures and coding systems for use within the Community which will facilitate the publication of the Community's External Trade Statistical Year Book early next year.

Realising the role that a viable external trade statistical data can play in formulating and managing national economic policies, the Community Computer Centre initiated a programme to introduce the EUROTRACE software as a tool in Member States for the production of trade statistics to replac