1.
GV and CU EXTERIOR: conference hall (2 shots)
0.06

2.
SV: delegates arrive past flags flying (2 shots)
0.16

3.
SV INTERIOR: General Ignatius Acheampong enters and takes seat
0.35

4.
SV: delegates from Gambia, Ghana, Guinea seated (3 shots)
0.43

5.
SV: Commissioner Gardiner speaking
0.51

6.
SV: delegates applaud
0.54

7.
TOP VIEW: General Acheampong speaking
0.59

8.
CU: Brigadier E. Utuka(border guard commander on Supreme Military Council)
1.01

9.
CU: Brigadier F. Akuffo (army commander on Supreme Military Council)
1.03

10.
SV and LV: Acheampong addressing delegates.
1.12

11.
SV: Delegates from Upper Volta, Togo, Senegal, Nigeria, and Niger seated (4 shots)
1.31

12.
GV: Acheampong continues speaking
1.34


The Economic Community of West African States was formed by the Treaty of Lagos, signed in May 1975. The treaty came into force in June 1975. The member nations are Dahomey, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Upper Volta.




Initials RH/JB/MR/1730



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The first Ministerial Council of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was opened in Accra on Tuesday (20 July) by the Ghanaian Head of State Ignatius Acheampong. In his opening address, he made a call to developing nations to strengthen their capacity for collective self-reliance.

SYNOPSIS: The ministerial Council of ECOWAS will review activities of the community since it was first set up in May 1975. The three-day meeting will also prepare for a summit of the community states. At the summit, General Acheampong and other Heads of State will decide on the venue for the headquarters of ECOWAS. The Ministerial Council will also discuss the question of re-exportation within the community of goods imported from other Third World countries. The conference is being attended by delegates from Gambia, Nigeria, Togo, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Niger, Mauritania, Senegal and the hosts nations, Ghana.

Dr. Robert Gardiner, Ghana's Commissioner for Economic Planning, addressed the delegates. The ministers will be discussing and economic cooperation fund. Then the ministers heard General Acheampong make his call for unity among the developing nations of the world. He asked the member countries of ECOWAS to pay greater attention to trade and economic cooperation.

The group would be more likely to succeed as an economic bloc, he said, than as individuals. But the Ghanaian leader warned that nay restructuring of trading relations between developed and developing nations would be a painfully slow process. Developing countries should therefore create a collective self-reliance, General Acheampong said.