The High Council of Affairs – eCCAS

The voice of the private sector ofCentral Africa.

THE HIGH COUNCIL OF AFFAIRS
OF CENTRAL AFRICA

The High Council of Affairs (HCA) of Central Africa wants to be ‘the reference and the privileged interlocutor of the regional institutions in charge of driving the regional integration process, for example, the defence and promotion of the interests of the company and contractors of all States members of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), as well as a platform for collaborative and supportive of the expression of the voice, which contribute
to the development of the private sector’ (Article 3 of the constitution).

The High Council of Affairs (HCA) has been officially launched in Kinshasa in the DRC Congo on October 18, 2022 in the wake of the held its Constitutive General Assembly and Elective, in the framework of the activities marking the Day of the Regional Integration, under the High Patronage of h. E. M Felix-Antoine TSISEKEDI, President of the DRC Congo and president of the ECCAS this year. The Day of the regional integration is proclaimed by the revised Treaty establishing
the ECCAS and is celebrated on the 18th of October of each year.

The Constituent General Assembly and Elective Upper Affairs Council of Central Africa from October 17, 2022 was the last step in a long process that started 2 years earlier by the Commission of the ECCAS. This process began with the identification and mapping of the different organizations in the private sector are the most representative in each of the 11 member States of the ECCAS. It is continued through consultation with all the stakeholders in the private sector
identified followed by the organization of workshops, discussions in Libreville on the contours and the development of the draft texts of legal and operational instruments of an umbrella organisation and inclusive of the private sector in Central Africa to submit to the examination and approval of the Constitutive General Assembly.

Well before the beginning of these efforts, the commission of the ECCAS had already made the observation that after several decades, and in spite of a real commitment of the community institutions, the process of integration of the economies of Central Africa showed a significant delay in its effective implementation due to a number of constraints among them a limited collaboration between the stakeholders in the process of regional integration. This lack of collaboration among the stakeholders had the consequence of improper access to business information, the opacity in the dissemination of the regulations, the non-application of community provisions, the weakness of the advocacy for the improvement of the business environment at regional level etc, All things that have led to the Commission of the ECCAS to register at the top of its medium-term strategic Plan (2021 -2025), the
establishment of a High Council of Affairs in Central Africa (HCA-AC) in the perspective of strengthening the public-private dialogue on the process of regional integration.

Indeed, despite the existence of several structures (boards, chambers of commerce, boards of SMES, associations of business women or young entrepreneurs, etc) representing the interests of the private sector at the national level in each member State of the ECCAS, there was no real player in the private sector at the regional level to support the process of regional integration, the operationalization of the free-trade zone and negotiations
trade that engage the community.
After the adoption of the legal and operational instruments of the High Council of Business (statutes, rules of procedure, strategic plan, business plan), the constituents have proceeded to the election of the 11 members of the board of directors and the executive office of the High council of the Business.

.The High Council of the Business has been created by 47 organizations representing the private sectors (boards, chambers of commerce, associations of women entrepreneurs) from all 11 member States of the ECCAS met in the constitutive General Assembly and placement. Other organizations or federations sectoral regional have since joined the High Council of the Business.
The High Council of Business has its headquarters in Malabo in Equatorial Guinea and has a liaison office in Libreville in the building the headquarters of the Commission of the ECCAS

THE MAIN TASKS OF THE HIGH
COUNCIL OF THE BUSINESS

The HCA of the ECCAS
is the voice of the sector
to private-Africa
Centrale

Defend and promote the interests of the private sector companies in the region of Central Africa

Play a leading role in the process of economic integration and structural transformation of the economies of Central Africa.

Work for development of trade (inta-regional, the emergence of regional champions and for the operationalization of the free trade area of the community and the ZLECAF;

Provide, among other things, to businesses in Central Africa : (i) documentation, information, orientation
and statistics for the expansion of regional trade, industrialization, mining and
agriculture, environmental protection etc, and : (ii) programs that are relevant capacity-building of
diriegeants business or training professionneles;

Support for the participation in the regional economy and continental SMES, women and youth as well as
vulnerable people

Contribute to the development of a framework for dialogue and consultation on a regular and institutionalized with ECCAS
and its member States ;

Serving as a platform of collaboration between policy makers at the level of Central Africa, and the sector
from the private sector ;

Propose an agenda of issues or reforms that should be the subject of a public-private dialogue at the level of the
community authorities of the ECCAS ;

Defend the interests of the private sector in the countries of the ECCAS within regional and international organizations ;

Promote frameworks for cooperation with the technical and financial partners of Central Africa, which
support the regional integration process and build mutually beneficial partnerships with all
agencies or multilateral organizations, bilateral, public or private, to achieve the same objectives that the High Council of the Business.

THE MEMBERS OF THE HIGH COUNCIL OF BUSINESS

The High Council of the Affairs of the Central Africa account 03 types of members :

  1. The ordinary Members are organizations representing the private sector of the member States of the ECCAS, regardless of their sector of activity, and which are legally constituted under the laws of the States of their membership or registration.
  2. The associated Members. It is or quasi-public agencies that support and facilitate the activities and the development of the private sector (investment promotion agencies, promotion agencies and exports, independent Ports, the national Councils of the chargers, the Authorities of special economic zones, one-stop shops business creation, etc.).
  3. Members patrons. It is a question of legal or natural persons who wish to contribute to the activities and financing of major socio-economic causes worn by the HCA-AC (energy Transition, Promotion of the blue economy, climate Change, business Support vulnerable living with a disability etc.).

*Associate members, or patrons are neither voters nor eligible to the general assemblies elected in the HCA-AC