Highlights of Day One of the Ministerial Meeting

* Opening of the Business ACP Investment Village

* Bureau of the Committee of Ambassadors interview candidates for ACP Secretary General 2020-2025

Nairobi, 6/12/2019/ACP: Ministers of ACP Member States congregated at the KICC in Nairobi, Kenya for the start of the week of activities which will culminate in the 9th Summit of ACP Heads of State and Government on 9-10 December.

Ministerial Meetings

The first activity of the day was the review of the Report on the Georgetown Agreement, which is the Constitutive Act of the ACP Group.

In parallel sessions, members of the Bureau of the Council of Ministers met while representatives of the relevant Committees attended the 12th Ministerial Consultation on Agricultural Value Chains. Formerly known as the Consultation on Commodities, the name was changed to refocus attention on development of agriculture value chains, in view of the Group’s new approach, to shift from reactive support for the commodities sector to an active support for value chain development. The meeting included a progress report on the implementation of the ACP’s new approach, highlighting developments under the Four Pillars: Finance, Capacity Building, Trade and Investment and Climate Change.

In the afternoon, there was a special meeting of the ACP Ministerial Committee on Development, Finance Cooperation, the Ad Hoc Contact Group on Tax Matters and a Ministral Meeting of the Central Negotiating Group. The meeting however which held everyone’s attention, even though it was closed, was that of the Bureau of the Council to interview the three candidates proposed by the Southern ACP Region for the position of Secretary General of the Group for the period 2020-2025. The Bureau’s decision will be conveyed to the Council for ratification.

Reports arising from all of these meetings are being compiled for review by the Council at the 110th Session of the Meeting of the Council of Ministers on 7 December.

Business ACP Summit

Business ACP launched the Opening of the ACP Business Summit on the grounds of the KICC at the start of the afternoon. ACP SG, Dr. Patrick I. Gomes, delivered the welcome address, remarking, “I am literally overawed; t is awesome what I see this afternoon and I have only seen the tip of the iceberg. The remarkable products, remarkable ways in which you have taken your skill and also the resources of our countries and transformed them to bring great value is exceptional and is worthy of our congratulations.”

EU Ambassador to the Republic Kenya, Mr. Simon Mordue, in his intervention, spoke glowingly of the results of the ACP-EU collaboration: “”I am delighted to be here with Secretary-General Patrick to share, what I think are the result of an incredible successful and fruitful partnership that now has already more than fifty years behind us. And this is not a partnership that is static. It is a partnership that is dynamic, responding to the new challenges that we face. So what you see when we look ahead of us is issues such as fighting climate change, ensuring gender equality, how can we promote new investment, how can we work together to tackle some of our shared security challenges. All of this is at the heart of our progressive, forward-looking shared agenda.”

Also at the Opening was Assistant Secretary General of SEDT, Viwanou Gnassounou. Two panel discussions on “Entrepreneurial Finance for the Empowerment of ACP Youth and Women’ and ‘Embracing Digital Entrepreneurship Industry 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence in the ACP Regions kicked off the planned series of discussions, following the Opening. The Investment village is open from 6-10 December and is free to members of the Public.

For more information on the 9th ACP Summit, visit the website: www.acpsummit.co.ke

For photos of the day’s events, visit the ACP’s Flickr page HERE.