From the Newsroom
São Paulo – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated yesterday (26), during the 5th conference of heads of state of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) in Sao Tome, capital of Sao Tome and Principe in Africa, that it is urgent to help the African continent to develop. The CPLP is made up of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe, and East Timor.
"It is extremely urgent to help Africa in the fight against the dramatic cycle of poverty, violence, and fatality," stated the president. "We are modernizing the information and communication and transferring technology and capitals so that the continent can compete in an increasingly global market," he declared, referring to activities that Brazil has been developing in Africa.
He mentioned the efforts made by Brazil and by other countries in the CPLP to fight AIDS on the African continent, in providing incentives to culture and to education and in stimulation to private companies, among other initiatives.
In this sense, Lula invited the remaining countries in the community to participate in the meeting between world leaders aimed a fighting world hunger, scheduled for September 20 in Nova York, before the United Nations General Assembly meeting. "We are going to show the world that we have concrete answers and solutions that provide all human beings with the right to dream with a better life," he stated.
Progress
Yesterday (27), President Lula officially turned over the two-year presidency of the CPLP to the President of Sao Tome and Principe, Fradique Bandeira Melo de Menezes, affirmed Brazilian Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, according to Brazilian News Agency Agência Brasil.
The soon-to-be implemented orthographic agreement among Portuguese-speaking countries and the admission of East Timor to the CPLP are among the accomplishments of the past two years, during which Brazil exercised the presidency of the organization.
Amorim stated that these two years saw the intensification of cooperation among Portuguese-speaking countries. He underlined the installation of two centres of cooperation in Africa. The first, chiefly for entrepreneurial activities, in Angola, and the other, for public administration, in Mozambique.
The Minister of Foreign Relations also recalled that the CPLP played an important role in the consolidation of democratic regimes in Guinea-Bissau and in Sao Tome and Principe. In Guinea-Bissau the community acted to guarantee the recent legislative elections, he commented. While in Sao Tome, in a rapid political move by the Ministers who participate in the CPLP, a coup attempt was stifled.
Amorim also recalled that the CPLP is an entity that establishes "favourable settings for bilateral and trilateral cooperation projects." As an example, he cited the agreements between Brazil and Mozambique to combat Aids.
A technical cooperation agreement to fight malaria is also expected to be signed by the members of the CPLP. Malaria kills more people than any other disease in Africa and affects all of the Portuguese-speaking countries, with the exception of Portugal. In Sao Tome and Principe, it is the leading cause of death among the population.
