Luanda — The secretary of State for New Technologies and Environmental Quality, Syanga Abílio, presided over Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, the opening session of the 24th Conference of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol.

The Angolan delegation was represented by the country's permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, ambassador Apolinário Correia, the national director for Environment Technologies, António Matias, and officials of the country's Diplomatic Mission.

The conference elected Pakistan minister of Environment, Mehmood Alam, to preside the Bureau of the 24th Conference of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, until the year 2013.

In his speech, Syanga Abilio thanked the members of the Bureau, the Secretariat of the Ozone Layer and all signatory countries for their support to Angola in exercising its mandate, and welcomed South Sudan, the last country to ratify the Protocol, making it a Universal Protocol.

Angola was elected to chair the said Protocol, at the 23rd Conference of Parties held in Bali, Indonesia, in 2011.