(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) The first Regional Workshop bringing together some seventeen Civil Registrars and Vital Statisticians from Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States ended in Georgetown, Guyana on Wednesday, 6 April, with participants endorsing an initiative to establish a CARICOM Association of Civil Registrars and Vital Statisticians.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana)   Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries gearing for the December 2005 implementation of the CARICOM Single Market (CSM) are steadily focusing on improving their statistical database to ensure the effective flow of information when the CSM takes off. To this end, a three-day workshop under the theme Strengthening Capacity of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems in CARICOM Member States-Improvement of Statistics on Fertility and Mortality got underway in Georgetown on Monday 4 April.

On behalf of the CARICOM Secretariat, let me welcome you to this CARICOM Workshop on "Strengthening Capacity of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems in CARICOM Member States- Focusing on the Improvement of Statistics on Fertility and Mortality."

For those who are visiting from outside Guyana, I would also like to welcome you to Guyana, the location of the headquarters of the Secretariat.

A high level team led by Dr. the Hon. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis will visit Brazil from 4-8 April 2005 to examine that country's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and to explore avenues for technical cooperation between the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) and Brazil, in the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS.