UNCTAD XII Hits Accra!

I am sitting in a cyber cafe at the NGO side inside the main UNCTAD XII (http://www.unctadxii-csoforum.org) conference that just opened some almost-two hours ago. The President of Brazil Lula da Silva opened the conference in his capacity as President of UNCTAD XI. After that the new presidentg incumbent John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana opened it, with a long speech that was covered by Ghana Broadcasting Radio Live (http://www.gbcghana.com). The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon also read a rather long speech. I did some digital recording of the two speeches, and hope to upload it as soon as.

 

I am rather impressed by the security detail around and the organisation of the whole set-up so far. I hope the media--unlike at the AU summit last June -- will have plenty to write home about!!

 

There are people -- mostly of the civil society ilk -- lingering around hoping to get access to UNCTAD wireless. The login and password have not been that great for the desktop computers; the laptops, like yours truly connected rather seamlessly.

 

Fingers crossed for the start of a fast-paced week for all participating! More pictures to come for sure!