Rawlings receives message from Ivorian President

Accra (Greater Accra), 2 March '99 --

An envoy from President Henri Konan Bedie of Cote d'Ivoire on Tuesday delivered a special message to President Jerry John Rawlings inviting him to attend a conference on industrialisation in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan next week. The conference is being organised by the Alliance for Africa's Industrialisation and will discuss ways of speeding up the continent's economic development. The alliance is formed by African countries and, so far, 16 Heads of State have agreed to be patrons. President Rawlings said he is not surprised that President Bedie is organising such a meeting because he is one of the African leaders who promote co-operation among African countries. "This is an acknowledgement of what President Bedie is doing to promote co-operation among African countries. This is an important meeting. There no question about it". He said there is no way Africans can make progress without co-operating among themselves. "This is the message I will continue to deliver and I hope my colleagues will do the same". Dr John Abu, Minister of Trade and Industry, said response to the formation of the alliance has been encouraging, adding that initially it was planned to have six Heads of State to be patrons but the number has shot up to 16. "This shows the commitment of individual countries and the desire to speed up the industrialisation of the continent." Mr Emmanuel Amon Tanoe, the Ivorian Ambassador who delivered the message, spoke about President Rawlings' recent trip to the United States and said "we are pleased with the way you presented Africa's problems. "You did not talk only about Ghana but the whole of Africa. Thank you," he said.