Ghana To Host ACP Heads Of State Summit

Ghana has been selected to host a summit of Heads of State from Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) countries in October, this year. The Secretary General of the ACP countries, Sir John Kaputin, made the announcement during a courtesy call on President John Agyekum Kufuor at the Castle, Osu, on Tuesday. The two-day gathering would be preceded by a ministerial meeting and would be held on the theme: “Human Security and Development.” President Kufuor suggested that the agenda should include the soaring prices of crude oil and food, carbon emissions and climate change. Also at the Castle was the Vice Prime Minister of Luxemburg, Mr Jean Asselbon, who is in the country to participate in the 12th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) meeting. He noted that the meeting could not have come at a better time considering the financial instability, food and petroleum price hikes that were threatening the global economy particularly, the economies of African countries. The Vice Prime Minister, who also doubles as the Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister of the small European country, said Luxemburg had targeted an increase its Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) from 0.9 per cent to one per cent of the Gross Domestic Product. President Kufuor said Ghana’s economy was making headway through the Government’s vigorous and purposeful economic reforms. But for the turbulent crude oil market, the country should have achieved single digit inflation.