LESOTHO VOLVIS APPLICATION: COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MASERU 000388 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR ECA/PE/V/M: EILLEEN CONNELLY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPAO SCUL LT SUBJECT: LESOTHO VOLVIS APPLICATION: COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER MOTHETJOA METSING REF: Maseru 246 ¶1. Embassy Maseru's Public Affairs Section respectfully submits the following request for a voluntary visitor program for Minister Mothetjoa Metsing, Lesotho's Minister of Communications, Science, and Technology. He is planning to travel to the U.S. in late August, and would appreciate a program which would help him better understand U.S. communication strategies and tools. Post feels that this program is an important component of our efforts to promote Lesotho's continued political stability (see reftel). Post would be happy to provide any additional information or documentation requested, and kindly thanks ECA for its efforts. START FIXED-FORMAT TEXT (PLEASE DO NOT EDIT): : The following data is in a fixed format which enables : automated processing in Washington and should not be : edited except by means of the Post-EVDB software. EXPORT-SOURCE: POST-EVDB VERSION: 3.0.7 POST-EMAIL: INFOMASERU@STATE.GOV TRANSMITTING-POST: PAS Maseru TRANSMITTING-POST-ID: 6119 EXPORT-TYPE: BIO DATA START NOMINATION: ECA-OFFICE: E/VGA PROG-AGENCY-NAME: POST-PROJ-ID: 36 ECA-PROJ-NO: PROJ-NAME: Voluntary Visitor Program START MEMO PROJ-DESC: A ten-day program designed for Lesotho's Minister of Communications and Technology. The objective is to afford the Minister an opportunity to visit and explore the American government and commercial outreach and communictaions stragies. The Minister would like to meet key public affirs/communications officials at relevant USG departments and in the private sector. The Minister will be accompanied by three officials of the Ministry of Communications. The Minister specifically requested to meet with Mr. Reno Harnish, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at the State Department's Bureau of Oceans, SIPDIS Environment and Scientific Affairs. END MEMO PROJ-DESC: PROJ-TYPE: Individual PROG-TYPE: IV Grant Visitor FY: 2007 DEPART-POST: 08/19/2007 SESSION-DATE: 08/20/2007 RETURN-POST: 09/01/2007 NO-OF-PART: 1 RANK-ORDER: 1 START MEMO POST-OBJ: END MEMO POST-OBJ: START MEMO POST-RCMD: END MEMO POST-RCMD: ECA-OFFICE-ID: 1035 PROG-AGENCY-ID: PROJ-TYPE-ID: IND PROG-TYPE-ID: 29 NOMINATING-POST-ID: 6119 FUNDING-CNTRY-ID: 6119 STATUS: N ORIGINATOR: P SUBJ-DISC: Communications & Information START BIO: PREFIX: Mr. F-NAME: Mothetjoa M-NAME: L-NAME: Metsing SUFFIX: POSITION-CODE: 700 PRINCIPAL?: Yes GENDER: DOB: 02/02/1967 MAR-STAT: M BIRTH-CITY: Mahobong BIRTH-CNTRY: Lesotho CITIZ-CNTRY: Lesotho RES-CNTRY: Lesotho START MEMO POSITION: MInister Communications, Science and Technology END MEMO POSITION: START MEMO OTHER-POSITIONS: END MEMO OTHER-POSITIONS: START MEMO PREV-POSITIONS: Deputy General Secretary - Lesotho Congress for Democracy Party 2002 -2003 -Assistant Minister- Ministry of Trade and Industry 2003-2006 - Assistant Minister of Justice, Human Rights and Law MASERU 00000388 002 OF 003 and Constitutional Affairs. END MEMO PREV-POSITIONS: START MEMO US-TRAVEL: None END MEMO US-TRAVEL: START MEMO OTHER-TRAVEL: Switzerland END MEMO OTHER-TRAVEL: START MEMO EDUCATION: Diploma in Business Studies Graduate Diploma in Commercial Management masters in Business Administration END MEMO EDUCATION: START MEMO MEMBERSHIPS: None END MEMO MEMBERSHIPS: START MEMO PUBLICATIONS: None END MEMO PUBLICATIONS: START MEMO SPEC-CONSID: END MEMO SPEC-CONSID: FIRST-LANG: Sotho/Sesutho ENGL-READ: 4 ENGL-SPEAK: 4 ENGL-COMP: 4 START OTHER-LANGS: OTHER-LANG: English OTHER-LANG-ID: EN READ: 3 SPEAK: 3 COMP: 3 END OTHER-LANGS: START MEMO NOM-POST-OBJ: END MEMO NOM-POST-OBJ: START MEMO NOM-POST-RCMD: END MEMO NOM-POST-RCMD: START MEMO VIS-OBJ: END MEMO VIS-OBJ: START MEMO VIS-REC: END MEMO VIS-REC: NOMINATING-OFFICER: Christopher Smith START MEMO NOMINATING-JUSTIFICATION: Minister of Communications, Science, and Technology Mothetjoa Metsing requested a voluntary visitor program due to his perception of the Government of Lesotho's ineffectiveness at communicating with the populace (see reftel). During an April 20th meeting with Ambassador Perry, the Minister stated that, "We in the government are weak in the areas of responding and informing." Borrowing USG terminology, he remarked that great improvements were needed in the GOL's "public diplomacy." Minister Metsing noted that "without good messaging, the government is under siege." Given the current turbulent political environment in Lesotho, Embassy Maseru feels that the Minister's trip to the United States and his greater understanding of public communications strategies is of key importance to the future stability of the Mountain Kingdom. END MEMO NOMINATING-JUSTIFICATION: NOM-OFF: SPEAKER?: No NOTIFY-EMB: No MEDIA?: No HOME-STAY: No HOME-HOSP?: No E-I-TYPE: NOMINEE-ID: 76 PERSON-ID: 80 BIRTH-CNTRY-ID: LT CITIZ-CNTRY-ID: LT RES-CNTRY-ID: LT FIRST-LANG-ID: SR E-I-TYPE-ID: NOM-POST-ID: 6119 NOM-FUNDING-CNTRY-ID: 6119 NOM-STATUS: N DS2019-ACTION: 1 DS2019-SUBJECT: 09.9999 SPONS-FUNDS: 0 SPONS-AGENCY1: USGOVT-AGENCY1: US-AGENCY-AMT1: 0 USGOVT-AGENCY2: US-AGENCY-AMT2: 0 INTL-ORG1: INTL-ORG-AMOUNT1: 0 INTL-ORG2: MASERU 00000388 003 OF 003 INTL-ORG-AMOUNT2: 0 VIS-GOVT-AMT: 0 COMMISSION: 0 OTHER-AMOUNT: 0 VIS-AMOUNT: 0 VIS-CAT: 7 END BIO: END NOMINATION: END FIXED-FORMAT TEXT: MURPHY