Event venues set for 60th CPA Conference today

Hotels and workshop halls for the 60th CPA Conference are set for delegates.

Sites chosen for the October 2 to 10 groundbreaking 60th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, CPA, Conference are now ready to receive guests and workshops. The event is hosted by Cameroon under the patronage of President Paul Biya, who is also Vice Patron of the CPA.

At the Yaounde Conference Centre, which will host the official opening ceremony on October 6, 2014, it all begins at the foot of the hill with the banner: “Welcome to the 60th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference on the theme: ‘Repositioning the Commonwealth for the post-2015 development agenda.”

Not far from the banner, potholes have been filled. According to the Director General of the Yaounde Conference Centre, Christophe Mien Zok, all is set.

He undertook an inspection tour of the building and event halls yesterday October 1, 2014, with his Deputy, Tabe née Mbeng Céline Nchong. They sized up the level of cleanliness and preparedness ahead of the event. “Our role is to ensure that all is set in terms of cleanliness, security, lighting and logistics,” Mien Zok explained.

He said that halls and relaxation sites like the huge makeshift restaurant were set. “No other ceremony will hold at the Conference Centre till the end of the CPA Conference,” Céline Nchong emphasized, adding that management has taken measures to completely transform the site for a befitting conference.

While technicians at the Nkol-Nyada-based Yaounde Conference Centre toiled to ensure that all machines were in perfect working conditions, cleaners on their part polished the staircase granite to give the venue a glittering look.

Different inspection tours like the National Assembly and the Ministry of Communication were due to visit the centre yesterday to ensure a hitch-free event.

At the National Assembly in the Ngoa-Ekelle neighbourhood, almost all general clean-up work had ended. Committees and sub-committees continued meeting for finishing touches while drivers and hostesses remained mobilised for last minute instructions.

The fleet of cars and buses to be used for the event was in place. Banners at the National Assembly, like at the Conference Centre, are now floating to welcome delegates.