Wednesday, July 23 2008

The official delegation of the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) is ready to take advantage of Prime Minister’s Patrick Manning’s offer of free technical assistance to ten African oil-producing companies.

Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon on Monday welcomed the delegation to Trinidad and Tobago at the ministry’s offices at Knowsley Building, Port-of-Spain, ahead of a week-long programme. Yesterday the delegation met with Gopee-Scoon, ministry officials, TT’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Victoria Mendez-Charles and other dignitaries to discuss areas of possible co-operation between Trinidad and Tobago and representative countries of ECOWAS (Cte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria) and TT’s acquisition of Observer Status to ECOWAS.

Members of the delegation included ECOWAS commission president and delegation head, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas and several ministers with Energy, Finance and other ministerial portfolios from the three African countries.

During their week-long stay, Gopee-Scoon explained, the delegation will be involved in site tours throughout the local energy sector to give the representatives a bird’s eye view of the industry and down-stream sectors.

She added that Manning’s decision to offer assistance January last year at the 8th annual Meeting of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia stems from government’s commitment to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals articulated by the United Nations. “We share Africa’s concern over the impact that global financial crises and price increases in energy and food are having on the ability of countries to achieve these Goals,” she said.

This coupled with the significant presence of the African diaspora in the region and government’s need to play a leadership role in the emerging Africa-Trinidad and Tobago diaspora partnership, she said, motivated the offer as well.

Ibn Chambas explained the offer was timely considering the large number of significant oil finds made especially in West Africa over the past few years. It is their intention, he said, to create a vibrant West African community through harnessing these resources to create “harmonised and balanced growth in the region.”

“We are very excited to share the experience of the development of oil and gas industry, with those countries, especially within the diaspora, who have the expertise. What experience that Trinidad and Tobago has to offer is truly attractive considering that the country has less than one percent of the world oil reserves and less than 0.1 percent of world gas reserves. It is a showcase of how much could be done with so little resources,” he said.