President attends Economic Community of Central African States summit

According to a press release from the Civil House of the President of the Republic, João Lourenço will, together with other heads of state in the community, discuss the priority action plan for this year and a declaration on Women, Peace and Security in Africa.

With a seven-point agenda, the note also highlights the transfer of power of the ECCAS presidency, from the President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou N'Guesso, to his counterpart in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi.

The opening ceremony will feature speeches by the special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Central Africa, François Louncény Fall, the president of the African Union Commission, Faki Moussa Mahamat, the president of the ECCAS Commission, Angolan ambassador Gilberto Veríssimo. , and the acting president of ECCAS, Denis Sassou N'Guesso.

ECCAS is a sub-regional economic bloc, comprising Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Rwanda and São Tomé and Príncipe.

The organization was created with, among several objectives, the purpose of implementing a common policy to eliminate customs taxes among the member states, stimulate the free movement of goods, services and people, advance industrial development within it, in addition to improving of the terrestrial connections between them, indicates the note.

"The president of the Commission, the Angolan Gilberto Veríssimo, is repeatedly quoted as referring to the excessive time it takes to travel a few hundred kilometers between some member countries, a situation that does not facilitate trade and clearly delays economic progress", stresses the statement.