Press release

OIF : CP/SG/JT/180202

18 February 2002

The OIF and ACP Secretaries-General sign the updated version of the Cooperation Agreement which has linked the two Organisations since 1997

In ¨Paris, on Monday 18 February 2002, the Secretary-General of the International Francophonie Organisation (OIF), Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and the Secretary-General of the ACP Group of States, Mr. Jean-Robert Goulongana, signed the updated Framework Cooperation Agreement concluded between the two Organisations since 1997, to strengthen their cooperation and institutional relations.

Thirty (30) countries of the 78 ACP Member-States are also members of OIF which numbers 55 States and governments. The two organizations share the same objectives for peace, democracy and sustainable economic and social development. They also subscribe to cultural diversity which is evident within the organisations themselves.

Relations between the two organizations were formalized in 1997 through a Framework Cooperation Agreement. Since then, they have each undergone significant institutional developments which therefore required the updating of the Agreement. Since 1997, the Secretaries-General have mutually participated in Summits and Conferences of both Organisations. The ACP Group participated in Francophonie meetings during the preparations for the Bamako symposium on democracy, and both organisations have held consultations on the subject of the integration of LDCs into the global economy, and the political situation in their Member-States.

At the OIF-ACP working meeting preceding the signing of the Framework Agreement, which was also attended by the General Administrator of the Francophonie Inter-governmental Agency, Mr. Roger Dehaybe, both organisations decided in the short term, that OIF would provide experts in communications and economics and studies relating to the ACP future trade negotiations with the European Union, in the framework of the WTO. They also agreed to organise joint ACP-OIF seminars on the implementation of the Doha Development Agenda, and hold consultations in the margins of major international conferences such as the Monterrey International Conference on Development Finance, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, and the World Summit on the Information Society to be held in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005.

Other long-term cooperation projects are envisaged in the following areas: conflict prevention, democracy, integration of developing countries in world trade, education and culture, and information and communication technologies.

Anissa Barrak, Head of the press service (Francophonie)
fax : 33 1 44 37 32 73 com@francophonie.org

Julie Tilman, Press officer of the Secretery General of the OIF
phone 33 1 44 11 12 68; fax  33 1 44 11 12 81 julie.tilman@francophonie.org

Hegel Goutier, Head of the ACP Press and Communication Service
phone 32 2 743 06 04 ; fax 32 2 743 06 58 goutier@acp.int