Technical meetings of ambassadors and ministers were held over the weekend to prepare the agenda for the II African, Caribbean and Pacific Summit of Heads of State and Government opening in Santo Domingo 25-26 November. The summit is held to establish a joint negotiating position regarding the successor agreement of the Lome IV treaty with the European Union as well as a joint agenda when attending the upcoming start of the next round of World Trade Organization negotiations. More than 2,500 persons from Africa, Pacific and the Caribbean are coming for the event, described as the most important summit ever held in the Caribbean. Heads of state and high-ranking delegations are expected from: Africa: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Comores, Congo, Congo Democratic Republic, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinee-Bissau, Guinea Equatorial, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Sao Tome e Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Duan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Chad, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kits & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago. Pacific: Fiji, Kiribati, Papua-New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Western Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. The languages spoken are: English (32), French (22), Portuguese (5), Spanish (3), Arabian (3), Swahili (2). The event organizers expect more than 60 heads of state and government to participate, and overall more than 80 delegations, including representations from Europe and 29 international organizations. The visiting statesmen will be staying at the following hotels: V Centenario Inter-Continental, Santo Domingo, Meliá Santo Domingo, Barceló Gran Hotel Lina, Dominican Fiesta, El Embajador and Renaissance Jaragua. Support personnel will be lodged at hotels in Boca Chica and Juan Dolio. Activities for the summit will take place at the Officers Club of the Ministry of Foreign Relations that has been remodeled and equipped for the event at cost of RD$30 million. The official photograph of the summit will be taken at the Plaza de la Bandera, in front of the Ministry of Foreign Relations. On the social activities program is a concert at the Ruinas de San Francisco, with the performance of music by Dominican composers. To close the summit, a folklore show will be held at the Fortaleza Ozama, with dances from Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean to be performed. The formal opening of the summit will be at 10 am on Thursday, 25 November at the National Theater. The first plenary session is scheduled to start at the Ministry of Armed Forces at 3:30 pm. For more information on the meeting and the ACP nations, see http://www.acpsec.org/ http://www.dr1.com/daily/news111999.shtml http://www.dr1.com/daily/news111899.shtml
