The Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga has been working like a worker bee since she helped Uganda secure the bid to host the 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) late last year.
The Speaker has held a number of meetings to brief relevant people about the high-level meeting and solicit for their countries’ participation. The Speaker has also carried out a number of trips outside Uganda to drum up support for the conference in an effort to make it truly historic.
One of the meetings she has held happened on June 6 during which she interacted with High Commissioners and Consul Generals to Uganda from member countries of the Commonwealth. Speaker Kadaga assured them of Uganda’s readiness to host the 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) that is slated to take place from September 22 to 29, 2019.
Hon. Kadaga appraised the top diplomats on the plans in place to host the conference at Speak Resort Munyonyo.
She said: “The Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference provides a great opportunity for our Parliaments to engage, deliberate and network on parliamentary best practices, governance and democratic values and socio-economic aspirations of the commonwealth fraternity.”
The Speaker added that outside the conference routine, delegates shall have the opportunity to tour various tourist attractions across the country. She added that arrangements have been made to encourage delegates to travel with their spouses, children and other accompanying persons.
She urged countries that do not enjoy reciprocal visa arrangements with Uganda to apply for visas online which will be endorsed in their passports at the point of entry into Uganda.
The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Uganda and also Rwanda’s High Commissioner to Uganda, H.E. Frank Mugambage, applauded the Parliament of Uganda’s leadership on the state of preparedness to host the conference and revealed that Rwanda is slated to host the conference in 2020 and would learn a lot from Uganda’s success story.
The Consular General of Seychelles to Uganda, Elly Karuhanga appealed to the organising committee to engage the private sector stakeholders such as Uganda Manufacturers Association, Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Private Sector Foundation Uganda be given a platform to make presentations at the conference.
“I would like them to be given space to market Uganda at the conference, because delegates will be ambassadors of Uganda abroad,” Karuhanga said.
In response, Kadaga said the private sector players owned the hotels in which the delegates were going to reside and therefore, are in business. She added that the public will also be invited to exhibit their products at the conference and during tours.
Uganda is hosting the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference for the second time since 1967. This year’s conference is expected to attract about 1,000 participants from the 54 commonwealth countries. Participants will include Members of Parliament, Clerks of Parliament, Staff of Parliament, Speakers of Parliament and accompanying persons.
A website, www.cpc2019.org has been created as a one-stop portal on all information regarding the conference.
