According to the Angolan Ambassador Gilberto Veríssimo, the body he presides over is facing enormous challenges, because the region "has so far had no formal or physical integration".
"The countries are not physically connected, that is, it is difficult to leave one country to the other by road, our coast of 3000 kilometers is not used for the physical connection between the countries," he said.
The CEEAC is composed of 11 countries: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe and Chad.
The diplomat, who was speaking in Luanda at a meeting with the Ministry of Economy and Planning and Angolan businessmen about the "increase in trade among the CEEAC countries", regretted the lack of regional economic integration.
"There is no economic integration, because most countries, including Angola, have not yet signed the African free trade area agreement, so we have no common customs tariffs," he said.
So, "this creates difficulties of entry and exit of products, but there is, however, a social integration that is informal, this physical connection is also informal because to leave Angola to the Congo, for example, it is necessary to see," he noted.
For the Angolan diplomat, the integration processes that already exist "need to be formalized" for their consequent integration of the regional economy.
"Because when we say that the trade rate between countries in the region is 1.9 percent, is that true?" he questioned.
"It's just a formal fact, because there is another trade process that is not counted, so we need to count so that it is also integrated into our economy so that we can say exactly," he noted.
The meeting with Angolan businessmen "falls within the scope of the CEEAC vision of economic and financial integration," he stressed, recalling that Angola has production and a high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to bring together the other members.
Gilberto Veríssimo also announced, on the occasion, that the body he heads will create, during this mandate, a monitoring center for the industrialization process of the countries.
"We will also do this. Angola is industrializing and what is the situation of other members, so that this industrial development serves the region?", he concluded.
