The 16th ordinary session of the Executive Council, comprising foreign affairs ministers, opens here tomorrow to pave way for the official opening of the 14th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) summit, which is scheduled to take place on January 31, 2010.
This follows the meeting of the Permanent Representative committee (PRC) comprising ambassadors accredited to the AU.
The PRC concluded its deliberations yesterday at which the ambassadors adopted their report that would be presented to the 16th ordinary session of the executive council.
The two high level meetings are expected to feed into the agenda of the heads of state and government summit.
The summit, which will be held at the AU headquarters here in Addis Ababa, will be held under the theme, ‘New Information and Communication Technologies in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities for Development’.
President Rupiah Banda will be among 50 African heads of state and government expected to jet into Addis Ababa to attend the continent’s highest profile summit.
The summit is going to witness the change of guard between outgoing chairperson Muhammar Gaddafi of Libya and Malawian President Bingu Wa Mutharika.
According to the AU commission here, Representatives from the United Nations (UN), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Bank are also expected to bring their respective competences and knowledge to this unprecedented debate.
Apart from political issues related mostly to the resolution of conflicts on the continent, the heads of state and government are expected to unpack the theme of the summit which has been widely viewed as one of the areas that hold a lot of potential for development on the continent.
The summit is also expected to discuss the report of the commission on unconstitutional changes of governments before considering adopting various reports, among them, the peace and security situation in Africa.
In addition, the summit will discuss the report of the ministerial meeting on the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The summit will also launch the AU flag and present awards to two African scientists who won the continental science prizes before climaxing into the 14th ordinary session of the heads of state and government summit.
As chairperson of the Great Lakes Region, Zambia’s president Rupiah Banda is expected to report to the summit on the progress made so far from the time he took over the chair.
For Zambia, which launched the ICT policy in 2007 and is considering the global imperatives of digital migration, the theme for this summit comes will be appropriate for the Zambian head of state and his delegation because it will offer an opportunity for them to refine the policy in order to respond to the dynamism in the sector.
ZANIS
:-\” Guess who might be flying on the Nkwazi 1 for this unnecessary summit. Poor Africans paying for events that never bear fruit, nor edible roots.
:d/ Finally Ghadaffi is leaving that office, that terrorist usually was pronouncing grave plans of his. So is Vera’s man the new chair wow! Question is he at the least Christianish? What is an African flag? It better be Red, black, gold and green.
\:d before you go losing your minds here did Ghadaffi not want to invade another afican country once?