(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The management of invasive species can best be executed when countries and regions cooperate with each other while at the same time reaching out to specialist agencies with proven credentials in controlling these pests.

Delegates attending a two day symposium on invasive species in St. Kitts/Nevis pointed out that as these harmful species move by land, air and sea, it was in the interest of countries to cooperate with each other on their management and control.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Services Sector is the future of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and in order for the sector to work effectively, governments must provide the enabling environment and other incentives for its development, the Hon Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda said Wednesday.

But he noted that it was the private sector that had to do the rest “to make it happen. You therefore have to organize yourselves, particularly in the newer areas, just as our traditional Sectors have or are doing to their advantage.”

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Regional Symposium on Services which opened Wednesday morning in St. John’s Antigua and Barbuda, is being hailed as an exciting initiative that should result in the reversal of a history of poor implementation of regional decisions.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Agriculture policymakers and plant scientists believe the time has come for countries to measure the financial impact of invasive species on national economies and consequently they believe there needs to be a major investment in research.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) More than a hundred representatives of the Services Sector in the Caribbean will gather in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda to begin charting a more structured approach to the development of the Sector within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
 

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Young people representing 18 Caribbean Community countries, on Sunday, participated in a symbolic tree-planting exercise in Haiti, as part of a four-day Caribbean Youth Exchange programme, which started on Thursday 9 July, 2009.  The Programme was funded by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID) with support from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Civic Action, Haiti.

  (CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) So there were awkward moments and instances of frustration too, much gestures, gesticulations and the occasional ‘unknown tongue,’ as the team of CARICOM youth delegates knocked minds, heads, hands and hearts with their Haitian counterparts to stage the piece de resistance- a theatrical production that was to be the fitting climax or rather the diaman of a four-day Caribbean Youth Exchange programme, which ended in Haiti on Sunday.

Salutations

Good morning.

I am very pleased to make these brief remarks on behalf of the Secretary General of CARICOM, H. E. Mr. Edwin Carrington, who sent his deepest regrets that he was unable to join us for the Opening of this Youth Exchange Programme today.