Whereas Africa has witnessed failure to achieve economic growth through formal regional cooperation efforts, Asia combined these efforts with other strategies and has been able to achieve positive results. Through formal regional cooperation and conscious support to key potential growth zones, Asian countries used growth triangle strategies (GT) that were aimed at increasing their competitiveness. This paper discusses the GT concept and proposes that African countries could benefit by adopting GT strategies. We illustrate our key arguments by comparing two regional cooperation processes in Africa: the East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).