The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has proposed six measures for the transformation of the Commonwealth to enable it to serve rich and poorer members equally.
They include policies which will facilitate trade and investment; regulate, yet make the flow of labour within commonwealth countries easier; and lead to greater investment in education, skills training, innovation and entrepreneurship for young people.
Speaking at the British foreign relations think tank Chatham House in London dubbed“The Commonwealth in a Changing World,” Ms. Botchwey listed the other measures needed to revitalize the commonwealth as climate adaptation, paying particular attention to small states, and boosting the human and financial resources of the Commonwealth institution itself.
“The pie is simply not capable of feeding everyone unless consumer-based market expansion considers the potential of our 2.5 billion population,” 60 per cent of whom are 30 years old or younger, she said.
Ms. Botchwey also proposed an industrialization and economic diversification strategy linked to Regional Integration Agreements and Economic Partnership Agreements within and beyond the Commonwealth.
This according to her would be a guarantee against the stagnation that is widespread across our countries.
She advocated for a Commonwealth-wide mobility agreement to help redress labour and skills demand through “safe, orderly and regulated migration.”
Additionally, what Ms Botchwey called “a common Commonwealth market” would allow work and services to be exchanged without relocation of workers across borders, as well as have young people trained wherever they lived in the Commonwealth.
