Friday October 17, 2003 09:45 PM

VOTE OF THANKS DELIVERED ON BEHALF OF THE AFRICAN DELEGATIONS AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE LOTH OIC SUMMIT CONFERENCE HELD IN MALAYSIA FROM 11-18 OCT 2003. BY THE PRESIDENT OF SIERRA LEONE AL - HAJJ DR. AHMAD TEJAN KABBAH

Mr. Chairman,

Your Majesties and Royal Highnesses,

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a singular honour for me to deliver a vote of thanks on behalf of the African Union delegations to the lOt" OIC Summit. This should normally have been done by His Excellency President Joaquim Chissano who is the Current Chairman of the African Union. Regrettably he had to leave early.

Mr. Chairman,

It is with great pleasure and pride that I convey to you, on behalf of the African delegations sincere thanks for the excellent manner in which you have conducted the proceedings of the meetings.

I would also like to express our appreciation to the bureau and the Secretariat of the OIC for the efficient and impressive organisation of the conference.

Our gratitude also goes to you Mr. Chairman in your capacity as Prime Minister of Malaysia, and through you, to the Government and people of Malaysia for the generous hospitality, which you have extended to us since our arrival in your beautiful country.

The Conference seems to have laid the foundation for a new direction in the work of the organisation. Several suggestions have been made. I would not like to go through all of them, as I believe they will be fully recorded in the report that will be prepared by the Secretariat. However one thing I would like to highlight is the suggestion about the restructuring of the organisation. Implied in this suggestion is that Member States want the organisation to be more result oriented.

Finally, we wish to thank all delegations and officials for their co-operation and for making our participation in this conference a highly rewarding experience.

Long live the OIC

Thank you for your attention.