Francisco André, who was speaking in Lisbon at the inauguration of the new executive director of the IILP, João Laurentino Neves, said: "It seems important to us to reinforce the participation of everyone in the projects and activities of the IILP and in the means that make this activity possible".
The official also pointed out the participation that the associated observer countries of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) may have.
Considering once again the Portuguese language as "a strategic asset", the Secretary of State underlined that 2023 "marks a new stage for Portugal in the context of the IILP", because it is "the first time that a Portuguese national assumes the executive direction of the institute".
And, speaking of the importance of the IILP for the promotion, dissemination and internationalization of the Portuguese language, he underlined: "It is up to us [CPLP Member States] to promote the strengthening of the institute's role in the design and coordination of cross-cutting promotion projects of the Portuguese language with the consequent involvement of Member States and associated observers".
He also stressed that the IILP has a "fundamental role within the CPLP, in the common management of that strategic asset that is the language".
On the part of Portugal, Francisco André reaffirmed "the total commitment" in supporting the IILP and the "full realization of its objectives, through a participation that wants to be more and more active and committed".
The member of the Portuguese Government also stressed the "importance of continuing to promote the harmonious functioning between the various bodies of the IILP", as well as continuing to encourage "contacts and exchanges on a regular basis between the executive director of the IILP and the Committee of Permanent Concertation of the CPLP", in which the nine ambassadors who represent the members of the organization in Lisbon are gathered.
"Portugal has been a constant and consistent supporter of the IILP project", which is materialized "in the dedicated action of the national commission of Portugal, chaired by Camões - Institute for Cooperation and Language and integrating all areas of government", he said.
Furthermore, he added, the country has always been present in mobilizing resources for the ILP, "not only through its ordinary contributions, but also through additional contributions for the realization of concrete projects".
The new executive director of the IILP, João Laurentino Neves, who took office this Monday at the CPLP headquarters in Lisbon, succeeding the Guinean Incanha Intumbo, defended that "it is up to the IILP to facilitate projects that contribute to the external affirmation" of the Portuguese language.
João Neves spoke of transversal projects that can count on the participation not only of Member States but of other civil society partners and organizations.
"It is necessary to have attractive ideas" and that the partners adhere to them, he underlined.
For the new executive director of the IILP, it is also important to "reinforce dialogue with other major linguistic spaces" and communities, and, speaking to journalists, he underlined the role that Macau could play in this international expansion of the language.
Ambassador Oliveira Encoge, Angola's permanent representative to the CPLP, the country which holds the organization's rotating presidency, expressed his country's commitment to "boost IILP activity" and announced that in the first quarter of this year "the Angolan presidency and the executive secretariat will visit the headquarters" of that institute, with a view to "strengthening ties".
On December 30, 2022, an official CPLP source confirmed to Lusa that the Portuguese João Laurentino Neves would take over, as of January, the executive directorate of that institute.
The IILP, supervised by the CPLP, has a rotating executive board, with each of the nine Member States being responsible for appointing them for two years.
At the last CPLP Council of Ministers, which took place in Luanda last June, the Portuguese authorities did not put forward any proposal, so the appointment of Laurentino Neves was approved in November, at the headquarters of the CPLP Permanent Concertation Committee, the usual meeting monthly of the ambassadors representing the nine Member States in Lisbon, on 3 November.
Laurentino Neves was also director of IPOR-Instituto Português do Oriente and has already been linked to the IILP, namely between 2003 and 2008, when he was part of the institute's scientific council assembly.
The new executive director of the IILP has a degree in Modern Languages and Literature.
Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste are the nine member states of the CPLP.
