The 10th Joint Parliamentary Assembly of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) has urged all member states to sign the membership charter to avoid restrictions on opportunities in the bloc.

Rwanda is among the majority of ACP countries that have the signed the charter and paid their annual contributions. Forty-three out of seventy-nine ACP countries have paid their full contributions for the ACP 2007 budget.

Speaking at the ongoing ACP meeting at Serena Hotel yesterday, the vice president of the Senate Prosper Higiro said that majority of the participants want those member states, which have not yet signed the charter to do so soon.

"Rwanda was among the first countries to sign the charter and we have since paid our annual contribution in time,” he said.

Rwanda pays about 24,000 euros every month, Higiro
"The payment depends on the countries’ GDP (Gross Development Product),” he explained.

ACP expects a total of 4,598,650 euros from member countries as their 2007 contributions, and so far 2, 969,851 euros has been received.

Meanwhile, Higiro said that member states have also come up with the new structures, rules and regulations governing body.

"We did not have our own rules and regulations, we only had the joint rules of the ACP-EU, this time we have come up with our own rules that fit all member states,” he said.
He said that the ACP has harmonized the rules and regulations.

Meanwhile about sixty delegates attending the African Caribbean and Pacific and European Union (ACP-EU) Joint parliamentary assembly will visit Yanze watershed management project today.

According to a press release issued by the UN World Food Programme, the visit starts at 9:00am in Rulinda and Gasabo districts.

The Minister of Land, Environment, Forestry and Mining, Christopher Bazivamo and the WFP country representative, Maarit Horvonen are expected to attended.

‘The project contributes to the efforts of governmental institutions and districts to protect the watershed of Yanze River which supply Kigali city.

The river is threatened by drying up because of soil erosion, reduction of water percolation rate and change in land use patterns,’ the release read in part.

The project controls soil erosion on 200 hectares of land as well as in the downstream area. It employs 2,470 local dwellers.

In a related development, women delegates at the ACP-EU assembly host a gender meeting today at Serena Hotel.
According to the Parliamentary Director Communication, Augustine Habimana, Rwanda will exhibit her achievement in the gender sector to female delegates.

Currently, close to 50 percent of Rwandan MPs are women while the constitution stipulates that 30 percent of the decision makers the government have to be women.

Ends