The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday announced that Guyana’s Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union, Dr Patrick Ignatius Gomes has been selected as the new Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states for 2015-2020.
Ambassador Gomes will take office in March 2015 in the 40th year of the ACP. The announcement was made yesterday at the 100th Session of the Council of Ministers of the ACP Group of States held at the ACP Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The ACP was birthed in Guyana, 39 years ago through the Georgetown Accord, a press release from the ministry noted.
In thanking the ACP ministers for the confidence they have exhibited in the ambassador, Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said, “The ACP is at a critical juncture and experience and wise leadership coupled with patience are critical if we are to overcome the challenges. Ambassador Gomes possesses these attributes and together with the support of all of us, I am confident he will not only keep the Georgetown Agreement alive but will make it thrive.”
Gomes has served as Guyana’s Ambassador to the ACP countries and the EU since February 2005. He is also the Chairman of the Ambassadors Working Group on Future Perspectives of the ACP. The ministry said for almost a decade Gomes has worked consistently within the ACP to gain beneficial terms of trade and development in the markets of the EU for the ACP’s agricultural commodities and minerals. He has also pursued improved financial support and services for joint ACP-EU institutions such as the Centre for Technical Cooperation in Agriculture and Rural Development and has been instrumental in promoting the potential for capacity development of the ACP through South-South and Triangular Cooperation.
