Former Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma has been invited to attend the Horasis Global Meeting for the second year in a row, APA learnt on Monday.
Koroma received the official invitation from the chairman of the annual global business confab, Dr. Frank-Jurgen Richter, who visited Sierra Leone last week, according reports.
The Horasis meeting is organized by the Geneva-based Think Tank, Horasis, which is chaired by Dr Richter. It brings together political and business leaders from across the world to discuss business, peace, security and development.
Koroma, who presided over Sierra Leone from 2007 to 2018, made his first appearance at the event hosted in Cascais, Portugal earlier this year as guest speaker.
Dr Richter, who is said to be on an Africa tour as part of a diplomatic mission to promote the confab, met President Koroma at his retirement home in the northern District of Makeni where he officially
handed him the invitation letter.
Richter was quoted saying that Koroma’s presence at the 2019 event was so valuable that he wanted him to attend the 2020 edition.
“I found President Koroma’s presence during the 2019 meeting and his contribution extremely valuable to the overall objectives of Horasis. Therefore, I am here to personally invite him to next year’s meeting and to request for his recommendation of other African political and private sector leaders”, he said.
According to the report, the Horasis chairman agreed to include a proposal by President Koroma for an African Peace Engineering Corps to be discussed at the meeting.
This idea was first made public by the former Sierra Leonean leader at the 2019 event of the Horasis meeting. Koroma was himself quoted saying the Horasis meeting was a good platform for Africa to advance their socioeconomic development. Dr. Richter was scheduled to depart Freetown for Mauritania last Thursday.
KC/abj/APA