Kabila new head of CEEAC
2007-10-31 16:09
Brazzaville - President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken the helm of the Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC) during a summit in Brazzaville, officials said.
Kabila replaced the Congo's Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has headed the body founded in 1983 with a view to free trade in the zone and eventually economic integration of 10 African nations.
However, Sassou Nguesso and Kabila with three other heads of state present for the summit in Congo's capital heard a report from CEEAC Secretary General Louis Sylvain Goma that "in matters of economic integration, what's been achieved still remains little".
Ping was their candidate
Goma said the lack of progress since the notion was launched in July 2004 was partly due to the landlocked location of some member states and isolation in trade affairs.
Other presidents who attended the meeting were Gabon's Omar Bongo Ondimba, the Central African Republic Republic's Francois Bozize and Fradique de Menezes of Sao Tome and Principe.
They decided that Gabon's foreign affairs and deputy prime minister, Jean Ping, was their candidate to become the new chairperson of the commission of the African Union, while most of the gathering, which lasted only a few hours, was devoted to trade with the European Union and a potential partnership accord.
The CEEAC member states are Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the DRC, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe.
- SAPA