Your Excellency Bruno Jean Richard Itoua, Minister of Hydrocarbons of the Republic of Congo and President of the APPO Council of Ministers, the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassador of APPO founder Member Country, the Republic of Gabon, His Excellency Rene Makongo, Your Excellencies Ambassadors and Heads of Diplomatic Missions of the 18 full Member Countries of APPO, Your Excellency the Ambassador of the only honorary Member Country of APPO, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, my colleagues from the Secretariat, ladies and gentlemen.
I am pleased, once again, to welcome Your Excellencies to the Forum of APPO Member Countries’ Ambassadors based in Brazzaville, the Headquarters of our Organization. This is the third time the Forum is meeting on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of our Organization some 38 years ago.
On behalf of the APPO family I thank Your Excellencies for creating time from your busy schedules to be here with us tonight. Thank you for coming Your Excellencies:
- Azeddine Riache from Algeria
- Vincente Muanda from Angola
- Younoussa Okalahoun Mamadou from Benin
- Louis-Marie Magloire Nkoum-Me-Ntseny from Cameroon
- Abdelkarim Ahmadaye Bakhit from Chad
- Mme Beatrice Nkake Bibomba from Congo DR
- Mme Toure Kone Maman from Cote D’Ivoire
- Mme Imane Samy Yakout from Egypt
- Bernabe Ndong Mba Obono from Equatorial Guinea
- Rene Makongo, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Brazzaville, from Gabon
- Sebastien Belawine from Ghana
- Ahmed Muftah from the State of Libya
- Cletius Sipapela Sipapela from Namibia
- Charles Abiye Sona from Nigeria
- Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane Ndiaye from Senegal
- Mziwamadoda Uppington Kalako from South Africa and
- Laura Evangelia Suarez of Venezuela
The Ambassadors’ Forum aims to regularly inform the Ambassadors and Heads of Missions of the APPO Member Countries on key energy issues that concern the APPO and by extension our Member Countries. That way, Your Excellencies are better informed to advise and brief your home governments on the activities of APPO and you are also better able to discuss with other people about the Organization that your governments own.
We have in the past editions of this forum spoken at length on the global energy transition, and how it has thrown up some challenges to our member countries that rely on oil and gas revenue.
I am pleased to inform Your Excellencies that in APPO, the era of lamentations is fast coming to an end as we have decided to take our destiny into our own hands.
Beginning with the challenge of funding the oil and gas industry to the technology and expertise of the industry and to markets and market infrastructure, we are taking practical steps to end Africa’s heavy dependence on external groups.
Regarding the funding challenge for the oil and gas industry in Africa occasioned by the global energy transition, I am pleased to state that APPO and Afreximbank are close to the take-off of the Africa Energy Bank, about which the President of APPO shall speak more. We are also working to make the Central Africa Pipeline System, CAPS, an ambitious project that aims to link 11Central African states by comprehensive pipelines of oil, gas and products, a reality, and I am pleased to announce that the CEMAC Secretariat has already approved to have CAPS on the agenda of the next Summit of CEMAC Heads of State. Finally, together with the various oil and Gas Research and Training institutions in our Member Countries, we are working on designating regional centers of excellence in the various sectors of the industry: upstream, midstream and downstream.
As great authorities in diplomacy, we urge you to assist in articulating the position of APPO in the various internation fora that you find yourselves. The APPO Secretariat is prepared at all times to give you the information you need about our activities and our positions so that you are better acquainted with what your organization is doing for the good of your people.
To assist the Secretariat do its work effectively, I would like to appeal to Your Excellencies to look into your policies on visa issuance to staff of the APPO Secretariat. Our works require us to travel several times to our member countries in a year. Each time we are going we are required to apply for a visa and each time we apply, we get a single entry visa. The problem is that within a year, the visa pages of a 5 year passport have been exhausted and we have to go looking for new passports. We would appreciate if Your Excellencies could consider giving APPO staff multiple visas as staff of other intergovernmental organization get with countries that are their members.
Before I conclude, permit me to express our deep appreciation to HE Denis Sassou N’Guesso President of the Republic for his visionary leadership in founding APPA, to HE Bruno Jean Richard Itoua, APPO President for the exemplary leadership and guidance he has been providing to the Organization and to the good people of the Republic of Congo for the hospitality we have enjoyed in the last 38 years.
Thank you all.
