No:632 - CONFIRMATIONS FOR ACP ATTENDANCE ENCOURAGING

Confirmations for the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) leaders summit to be held in Nadi next month has been encouraging with Kenya confirming the attendance of a 23 member delegation headed by its President.

According to a senior government official, apart from the Kenyan President, other Heads of State that have confirmed their attendance are the Presidents of Gambia Dr. Alhaji Yahuya, Kessai Note of the Marshall Islands, and the premier of Niue, Mititaigimene Young.

In addition, six heads of governments have also confirmed their presence in Nadi. They are Dr Robert Woonton the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Samuel Hinds of Guyana in Africa, Namibian PM Hager Geigob, Sir Allan Kemakeza of the Solomon Islands, Sir Amerood Jugneuth of Mauritius and their counterpart from Vanuatu.

Eritrea, the Seychelles Islands and Palau are sending their heads of delegation.

With less than a month to go, hotels in the Western Division from the Coral Coast to Lautoka have been booked to capacity for July for summit members.

These include the Chairman of the ACP, its Secretariat from Brussels, overseas and local media and the government of Fiji's support staff.

Scheduled for July 16 to 19 th, the Third Summit for ACP Leaders, to be held at the Sheraton Fiji on Denarau Island in Nadi, will see a total of 77 countries represented.

Meanwhile, the Sub-Committee on the Media headed by the Director of Information, Eliki Bomani will be in Nadi Tomorrow to inspect the media domain at the summit venue.

Representatives of the media, Information Technology and Computing Services (ITC), Telecom Fiji and Vodafone will accompany him.

"It is a familiarisation visit as we want all parties involved to be clear with the logistics involved and if some changes are needed we will be in an advantageous position since we will be making realistic decisions given that we will be moving around the summit venue itself," said Mr Bomani.