São Tomé and Príncipe – The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) on Sunday reiterated its commitment to achieving economic, social and environmental development in a sustainable and balanced manner.
This commitment is part of the São Tomé declaration as a result of XIV Summit of Heads of State and Government of the CPLP, which was created on July, 17, 1996.
To fulfil this objective, the community intends to make every effort to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a document with 17 goals.
The meeting made possible the creation of mobility and exchange programmes of CPLP young people with the aim of strengthening dialogue, the exchange of experiences and networking.
The measure aims to intensify exchanges in the fields of education, training, culture, associations, voluntary work, sport, human rights and sustainable development.
The meeting of the Lusophone Community held in São Tomé and Príncipe defended the need to recover the economic sector after the covid-19 pandemic to preserve and create decent jobs, income and productive capacity.
The Heads of State and Government recognise the importance of multilateral action on training in the context of promoting trade, investment, employment and social protection.
Economic and business dimension
Meanwhile, the participants of the CPLP Summit praised the inclusion of the economic and business dimension in the organisation's statutes, contributing to the sustainable development of member countries and the promotion of people's well-being.
During the 14th ordinary meeting, the CPLP summit emphasised the adoption of the "Strategic Agenda for the Consolidation of Economic Cooperation in the CPLP 2022-2027".
The diploma was adopted by the First Joint Meeting of the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Finance held on 29th April 2022.
At this Sunday's summit, the leaders of the member states also welcomed the creation of the CPLP Trade and Investment Promotion Agencies Forum, which took place in February of the same year.
According to the São Tomé Declaration, the statesmen called for intensified efforts to tackle the high unemployment rates among young people.
The Heads of State and Government encouraged the strengthening of strategies to promote small businesses and entrepreneurship within the CPLP.
The final document of the meeting states that the participants congratulated the organisation on the creation of the Directorate for Economic and Business Affairs within the Executive Secretariat.
Strengthening technical support
The participants of the CPLP XIV Summit believe that the measure will help strengthen the technical monitoring of the actions to be implemented under the Strategic Agenda.
In this regard, they encouraged Angola's willingness to appoint a person to operationalise this directorate and for the resources defined for this purpose.
As for finalising the process of ratifying the Mobility Agreement between the member states, they considered it an essential step towards creating a true Community of peoples.
Portugal, Mozambique and Cabo Verde were praised for the entry into force of amendments to their Foreigners Law to implement the Agreement.
The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) approved the conclusion of the Programme to support the integration of Equatorial Guinea in the organisation and praised the country for the abolition of the death penalty with the entry in force of the new Criminal Code, in November 2022.
During the meeting in the capital city of São Tomé and Príncipe, the CPLP heads of State reiterated the solidarity with the government and the people of Mozambique fighting terrorism in the northern Cabo Delgado Province.
Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor make up the CPLP.
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