Accra, Feb. 10, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama has called on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to strengthen ties between member countries, to facilitate free trade and movement of persons in the sub-region.

"Although some policies for free movement and trade have been on the drawing board for years, such activities among member countries are still facing many artificial barriers which should be removed for rapid development," he said.

Vice President Mahama made the call when a five-member ECOWAS Parliament delegation called on him at the Castle, Osu to share achievements and challenges of ECOWAS Parliament.

The delegation was led by the Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament Mahamane Ousmane, and the other members, Mr. Roland Kaine, Mr. Kebbie Brima, Mr. Gomez Fernandes and Mr. Shehu Matazu Garba.

Mr. Mahama noted that ECOWAS was one of the oldest regional bodies in Africa but unfortunately free movement and trade were still ineffective despite declarations and resolutions on them. He gave the assurance that government would endeavour to play a leading role in the full integration of the sub-region and called on leaders of member states to remain committed to their roles and responsibilities in the fight for rapid regional integration.

On the use of a common currency for the sub-region, Vice President Mahama said the proposal was long over-due and called on member countries to step up programmes to meet the criteria for the acquisition of the currency. He said Ghana's economy was stabilizing and would therefore not be surprising, if government was able to meet the criteria for qualification into the common currency zone.

Vice President Mahama said "The common currency for member states has eluded us for years now, because many countries are not able to meet the criteria and we all know that if we are able to achieve it will speed up regional integration and development". Mr. Ousmane, said the ECOWAS Parliament had embarked on a restructuring programme with the establishment of a court, appointment of 17 administrators and additional 20 administrators later to streamline issues in the House.

He said peace, security and stability in the sub-region were some of the major challenges facing the House and called on member countries to undertake in-house action programmes to avert the escalation of such negative activities into serious and multi-national issues. 10 Feb. 10