The West Africa Sub-regional Ministerial Forum on the implementation of the Special Programme for the Development of Africa (SPDA) opened in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso yesterday under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso Tertius Zongo. The Assistant Secretary General of the OIC for Economic Affairs, the President of IDB Group, the Burkina Faso Ministers of Foreign Affairs and that of Economy and Finance, the Mayor of Ouagadougou among others also attended the meeting. The Forum brought together Ministers responsible for Finance and Economic Development from OIC Member States of West African sub-region to review the progress of the implementation of SPDA since its inception in 2008. In his speech at the opening ceremony of the Forum, delivered on his behalf by Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs, the Secretary General of the OIC, Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu underlined the potential of the OIC Member States from the Western African sub-region as epitomized by big chunks of arable land, considerable deposits of mineral resources and enormous potentials for development, which can be exploited to forge mutually-rewarding partnership with other OIC member States. He further reflected on the OIC Ten-Year Programme of Action (TYPOA) which led to the development of the programme under review. He appealed to national, regional and international institutions to support the SPDA and cover the funding gap of about US $ 8 billion. --MORE
