Vice President Mahama joins Commonwealth heads at CHOGM
Vice President John Dramani Mahama, on Friday joined 23 other Heads of Governments in the official opening ceremony of the 21st biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia.
The conference, which had “Building National Resilience, Building Global Resilience as its theme attracted over 6000 participants made of delegates and media to the Perth Supreme Court gardens.
CHOGM this year, is concentrating on food security, climate change and financial and commercial development of member countries throughout the world
It also attracted Queen Elizabeth II, Heads of States, Foreign Ministers, High Commissioners and members of various committees and organs under the Commonwealth Secretariat.
In her inaugural address, Queen Elizabeth II, said the world’s survival from terrorism had metamaphosed into other challenges such as food and financial insecurity, climate change and trade development which needed immediate solutions.
She called on various organs of the Commonwealth and various heads of government to strengthen their relations with new information technology to ensure equity and equality among member countries.
Queen Elizabeth stressed the need for cooperation and collaborations that would create development opportunities for all member countries to make the bi-annual meetings useful and beneficial to their citizens.
She appealed to member countries to also strengthen their gender and women activities that would empower them to play useful roles in the development of the commonwealth and its member states.
Mr Kamalesh Sharma, Commonwealth Secretary-General, said the meeting had achieved the goals the were set in the last meeting held two years ago in Trinidad and Tobago, and would continue to whip up the enthusiasm of member states to uphold standards.
He said: “:It is heartening that the goals set up in our last CHOGM have been realised-and in such practical ways.The network of elections commissions is in full stride and on track to our ambition of establishing a ‘gold standard’ in electoral practice.”
Mr Sharma said the Commonwealth Geneva small states office was up and running and would soon become the hub in multilateral world of Geneva in service of the small states.
He called for unity among member states in order to achieve their three aspirations of achieving Democracy, Development and Diversity and to strive for equity for the rights and causes of small and the vulnerable.
At the close of the CHOGM on sunday, the leaders would also set up goals and sign agreements that would empower members to undertake development projects on behalf and for the countries and their people.
Source: GNA