International Meeting – "Africa Day"

May 25 is marked as a day when African citizens make assessments of achievements from previous year in their own country and build new initiatives for accomplishing common goals faster. Cruel historical past, which was inflicted upon the nations of Africa by economically and civilizationally developed West, demands an annual analysis of needed help for development of younger African countries from the developed western countries as well. And that is only one of the reasons why Africa Day is necessary also in European countries and it should become a day of analysis of achieved development of mutual relations with African countries.

The Ambassador's Club will on the initiative of the International African Forum in this year organize some broader expert meetings on developing relations between the Republic of Slovenia and African Countries, with cooperation by the International Center for Promotion of Enterprises (ICPE) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia.

Date, venue and language of the Meeting

The meeting will be held on May 18, 2012, in the ICPE Building, Dunajska 104, Ljubljana, Slovenia, between 9:30 – 13:00. The meeting will be in Slovenian language with simultaneous translation in English.

Program Framework – Goals

Mark the Africa day in the Republic of Slovenia and express support to the activities and goals of African Union; Critical overview and assesment of achieved level of political relations of Republic of Slovenia with African countries; Evaluate and present possibilities for establishing economic relations betwen Republic of Slovenia and African countries; Assessment of achievements in the field of cultural exchange and cooperation as well as presentation of future development in this area; Examining current forms and effects of humanitarian help and determine possibilites for further activities on this field.

Invited guests & participants

Honorary consuls of African countries with jurisdiction in the Republic of Slovenia, foreign Ambassadors in the Republic of Slovenia and diplomatic missions of EU in the Republic of Slovenia, management board presidents and directors of Slovenian enterprises with developed business relations with African countries as well as businesses, interested in such collaboration, diplomats of the Slovenian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, members of the Slovenian Ambassadors Club, members of the Slovenian Association for International Relations,professors of International Relations and their students, representatives of Slovenian media;

The conference will be headed by:

-          Mr PETER TOŠ, retired Ambassador, President of the Club of Former Slovenian Ambassadors;

-          Mr JANEZ PODOBNIK, Acting Director General of the ICPE;

-          Mr IBRAHIM NOUHOUM, Director of African Forum.

Introductory addresses by:

-          H.E. Mr KARL ERJAVEC, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia: “ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE AND FUTURE TENDENCIES OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA IN DEVELOPING POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH AFRICAN COUNTRIES”;

-          Mr SAMO HRIBAR MILIČ, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Slovenia: “SLOVENIAN ECONOMY SEEKS ENHANCED RELATIONS WITH AFRICAN COUNTRIES”;

-          Dr BOŽO CERAR, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia: “HUMANITARIAN AID AND DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION FOR AFRICAN COUNTRIES”;

-          Dr ANTON STRES, Ljubljana Archbishop: “CHARITY AND DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE OF CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES”.

Second part of the conference will include the panel discussion moderated by H.E. Ms HEBA SEDHOM, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt with participating ambassadors accredited to the Republic of Slovenia.

The full conference programme is available here.