I thank you very much for the opportunity bring afforded to address you for the first time as Secretary-General of the ACP Group of States. As the President has stated, I have been keenly following the work of your Assembly and the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly for some time now – a decade to be precise. The parliamentarians have always been a source of inspiration – in particular, I recall a phrase used by the representative from Uganda – that the ACP now has a GPS to set our direction.

Mr. President,

Thank you for the opportunity to address you on this auspicious occasion – the celebration of international women’s day. I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Secretariat for organising this event, in particular, the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Human Development, Mme. Michèle Dominique Raymond, who has taken the lead in organising this event for the past 4 years.

[Protocols]

The event for which we are gathered this evening takes place in the year that makes the milestone 40^th Anniversary of the creation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States by the Georgetown Agreement on June 6, 1975.