Culture, business priority agenda for international forum

The National Business

BUSINESS and culture will be given prominence among the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) states, the recent 9th ACP summit revealed.
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Patrick Pruaitch said the meeting, in Nairobi, Kenya, had endorsed a formation of a business forum among new initiatives for a revamped Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific states (OACPS).
“The ACP’s Council of Ministers endorsed a revision of the Georgetown Agreement that will transform the current ACP states into OACPS,” he said.
In his capacity as chairman of the 9th ACP Council of Ministers, Pruaitch told ACP leaders that calls for a “transformed ACP grouping” had been made at the 7th ACP Summit in Sipopo, Equatorial Guinea in 2012 and at the 8th ACP Summit in Port Moresby in 2016. “Since then, an ACP Committee of Ambassadors has worked on a revised agreement,” he said.
Pruaitch said the recommendations by ACP ministers taken into consideration were:

  • Plans to make ACP a more dynamic and effective organisation;
  • promotion of greater integration among ACP states;
  • development of an innovative and long-term vision in context of a dynamic global situation; and,
  • fulfilment of the ACP Group’s collective aspiration to become an influential player on the international scene.

“The Nairobi Summit also agreed that OACPS will be organised on the basis of six geographical regions – Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific,” he said.
“This will constitute the largest single multinational group of developing countries.”
Pruaitch said a proposed business forum, which would be set up to serve as a public and private sector forum, would be comprised of chief executive officers of private sector organisations.
“They will meet annually on the margins of the Council of Ministers meeting,” he said.
“Among other provisions approved by the summit is a plan to place culture high on the political agenda, while recognising the economic importance of cultural industries and other cultural activities.”
The summit was held last week.