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 Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning has confirmed that French President Nicholas Sakorzy will be among the 40 Commonwealth leaders who have so far confirmed they will attend Friday's 21st meeting of Commonwealth Heads of State and Government.
In a radio broadcast to his country, Mr Manning confirmed earlier reports that first appeared in the English daily this week, the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, that President Sakorzy whose country France is not a member of the Commonwealth, will be joined by yet another non-Commonwealth leader, the Danish Premier Lars Lokke Rasmussen and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon when the Commonwealth Heads Of State and Government Meeting (CHOGM) is formerly opened by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
According to sources close to the CHOGM national secretariat, the two non CHOGM members and the UN Secretary General are coming here to gunner for more support for climate change talks due to be held in the Danish capital Copenhagen next month.
Announcing the news, Mr Manning said: "This CHOGM in Port of Spain , under our chairmanship, is the last international summit meeting before that critical meeting and has become most important to the process. We have the opportunity to positively influence its outcome."
The Copenhagen talks are aimed to rein in emissions of greenhouse gases that are widely seen as causing global warming. Mr Manning went on to add: "I should also advise you that our country has been at the centre of almost frenzied activity among leading nations from both the developed and developing world as we seek to ensure that we take the strongest possible position in the preparation for the Copenhagen meeting."
After adopting the climate change policy Mr Sakorzy with Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva, are said to have vowed to launch an international drive to get other world leaders to back the policy. Climate change is one of the major issues that CHOGM is due to discuss here next week.
 Meanwhile, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni who is the outgoing CHOGM Chairman is one of two African leaders who have been confirmed as speakers at the Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF) due to open here Monday November 23, four days before CHOGM starts. He will be joined at the rostrum by Zambian President Rupiah Banda alongside Mr Manning, Mr David Thompson, the Barbados Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Mr Tillman Thomas, the Grenada Prime Minister and Mr Bruce Golding the Jamaican Prime Minister.
Others speakers will be Ms Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, the Executive Director of the UN-Habitat, the 2001 Nobel Prize winner in economics Prof. Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Skinner, the Chairman of the Commonwealth Business Council, Edward Carrington the Secretary General of CARCOM, Dr Anthony Hayward the BP Chief Executive, Sir Allan Fields Chairman of Cable and Wireless, Dr Pascal Dozie Chairman of Diamond Group, Mr Ishmael Yamson Chairman of Unilever in Ghana and Mr Vijay Eswaran Chairman and CEO, Qi Limited.
This CBF meeting will aim to promote practices and policies for the enhancement of global trade and investment. It will aim to provide new opportunities for business networking and partnerships. Countries that have hosted the CBF in the past are said to have realised significant gains in terms of investment promotion and development opportunities in their respective countries. It is claimed that foreign direct investment increased three-fold when Malta hosted the CNF four years ago. In Uganda in 2007 when the CBF was held in Kampala , it is claimed investment flows have increased there with more than a billion US dollars worth of projects in infrastructure, energy and telecommunications being commissioned.
This year's CBF meeting will take place aboard the Royal Caribbean Cruise Liner ‘Serenade of the Seas' that is lying just off the Waterfront next to the Hyatt Hotel and the Media Centre in the International Finance Centre. Its objective will also be to consult with key public and private sector stakeholders from the Commonwealth on issues and themes relevant to the business environment. CBF will also try to utilise the global network of the Commonwealth more effectively for the promotion of trade and investment. Finally, it will aim to develop a communiqué outlining the views and recommendations of private sector stakeholders from the Commonwealth region to Heads of Government represented at the CHOGM meeting.
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Its Federal or the bullet!! (1)
