The Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States

ACP PRESS STATEMENT 4
October 2nd 2008

Ghanaian President Kufuor assumed the presidency of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP) on Thursday officially opened the 6th ACP Heads of State and Government Summit in Accra.

Assuming his new role, Mr Kufuor thanked the outgoing President of the ACP Summit and Sudan’s President Omer Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir for holding the fort for the past two years and for the wonderful cooperation between the officials of the two countries which has contributed to the smooth arrangements for the Sixth Summit.

He said: “That cooperation, capped with your presence here today, is yet another manifestation of your commitment to our organization and I hope that in taking over the torch from you, Ghana will live up to the expectations of all ACP States in guiding the affairs of the organization for the next two years.”

Mr Kufuor said: “As we look forward into the future, the two sides of this partnership should seek new modalities by which they would facilitate their respective entry into WTO agreements competitively, profitably and with dignified interdependence.”

The President said that the ACP countries are determined to empower their peoples to take advantage of the ever-increasing opportunities which would help them to integrate meaningfully into the systems and impact positively on their development. 

He added that the ACP wants a better life for all its peoples.

Outgoing President Mr Bashir said the Summit takes place at a very critical moment in history adding that small and poor states, which constitute the majority of ACP membership, are exposed to threats.

“To surmount these serious obstacles, we need, among many other things, to work collectively,” the president, said.

He said the current rising food prices which, according to some experts, would bring back some 500 million people to poverty, will certainly threatened efforts to meet the MDGs by 2015. The MDGs are already behind schedule due to donors’ fatigue and other global factors.

“We call upon our European partners and the international community at large to consider the food prices with due seriousness and flexibility in order to avert hunger and protect the poor,” he said.

Food crisis and the current financial turmoil are among the major issues that have now been discussed by ACP Leaders.

For details: contact iroga@acp.int