If the currently rotating Cape Verdean presidency of the CPLP was focused on facilitating the mobility of lusophone citizens, the angolan should be focused on the economic pillar of the organization, said diplomat Francisco Ribeiro Telles, who took over the past year, despite taking office on 15 December 2018.
In an interview with Lusa, after his first year in office, the diplomat began by recalling that Angola has not yet submitted his program, but considered that, from the talks he has been holding with the country's officials, the presidency intends to "give a boost" to economic part of CPLP.
"From the conversations we have had and the contacts we have been having, I think Angola will aim to boost the economic dimension of the CPLP," he said.
Explaining that the organization today has three pillars - the promotion and diffusion of the Portuguese language, political and diplomatic concertation and cooperation - Ribeiro Telles said that "a fourth pillar of the CPLP, that of economic and business dimension of the community. He added that there are more and more countries interested in developing this pillar”.
The Executive Secretary himself confesses that he would like to see in the future, even if possible during his term, "a certain consolidation of this economic and business pillar".
In addition, "I would like to see" the summit of Heads of State and Government of the nine member states of the organization, which takes place every two years, to be preceded on the eve of a “major economic forum on the economy of the countries of CPLP".
The idea, he explained, "was that this forum could then become something of an African Davos". "It would be very interesting for the CPLP to leverage this", he said.
The CPLP Business Confederation, in its annual conference in Porto, recently argued that its conferences should be biannual and take place on the sidelines of the organization's summits of heads of state and government.
According to the CPLP Executive Secretary, the new pillar will begin to be debated by Member States as early as this year.
"There is a ministerial meeting, already convened by the Cape Verdean presidency, at the level of Economy, Trade and Finance ministers, preceded by a meeting of investment agencies. So I think this is a path that is opening up" he said.
In addition to this goal, Ribeiro Telles outlined as other major goals by the end of his mandate, later this year, the mobility and more active participation of the observer countries in the organization, also at the financial level.
On mobility, he said: "I hope you see the light of day, that there are concrete advances in mobility, because I think it would be a historic advance in the CPLP itself," he concluded.
