Some 116 community texts and 12 projects will be evaluated during the 6th Annual Review of Political Reforms of the West African Economic and Monetary Union in Senegal (WAEMU), APS has learned. "As part of the technical component of the 2020 edition, 116 community texts and 12 projects will be evaluated," said the Director General of the Financial Sector and Competitiveness, Bamba K. Speaking on Monday, at the official opening of this 6th edition organized by videoconference between Dakar and Ouagadougou (Burkina-Faso), it argued that the three new texts introduced concern internal taxation and the Community preferential regime.

Mr. Ka stressed that the said ceremony remained "a source of comfort" and justified all the attention given by the State of Senegal to the integration component in the context of the post-Covid-19 economic recovery through the adjusted and accelerated priority action program (PAP2A) of the ESP. For 5 days, the experts of the WAEMU Commission and the nationals will note not only the results achieved, but also the difficulties faced by the States. Ultimately, it is a question of providing appropriate solutions to improve the competitiveness of national economies while allowing the populations of the Union to benefit from the fruits of regional integration. The Director General of the Financial Sector and Competitiveness noted that the exercise will also educate stakeholders on the nature of the difficulties and constraints encountered by ministerial services to carry out WAEMU reforms and projects. Also, he recalled that the 2019 edition was an opportunity to examine 113 reforms and 14 project programs in Senegal. For him, at the end of the evaluation, the average rate of implementation of Community reforms had come out at 77.9% and 70.4% for the implementation of programmes and projects. The exercise should also lead to a memorandum that will be presented during the political component bringing together the president of the WAEMU commission and all the ministers concerned by the reforms and projects.

The WAEMU Commission reviews the integration process in member states from 9 November to 11 December 2020. For Senegal, the work will take place from 23 to 27 November. A press release indicates that these meetings will begin with a technical phase devoted in particular to the evaluation of the effective implementation of more than 116 regulatory texts and 12 community programs and projects for an amount of more than forty-nine billion CFA francs. According to the same source, the review carried out in 2019 had made it possible to note significant progress in terms of transposition and application of Community reforms. The document highlights that the performance recorded by Senegal reveals an average rate of implementation of reforms of 77.9% in 2019, against 75.5% in 2018, an increase of more than 2 points. The communiqué recalls that the WAEMU annual review was established by additional act of the Conference of Heads of State and Government (CCEG) since October 2013. Its main objective is to promote the acceleration of the implementation of reforms, policies, programmes and community projects within the WAEMU within the framework of deepening regional integration.