Hon. Julian Hunte, President of the United Nations General Assembly, and Chair of COTED;
Ministers of Foreign Trade and other Heads of Delegations;
Dr. Edwin Carrington, Secretary General of the Caribbean Community;
Amb. Richard Bernal, Director General, Regional Negotiating Machinery;
Members of the Diplomatic Corps;
Delegates and Friends,
To visiting delegates I wish you a very warm welcome to Belize!
Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
Honourable Ministers
Distinguished Secretary General, Dr. Edwin Carrington
Director General of the CRNM
Assistant Secretary-General
Members of the Public and Private Sectors
Distinguished Delegates
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
CHRIST CHURCH, BARBADOS – Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize, opened the Sixteenth Meeting of COTED in Belize City, Belize, today.
Officials met from March 1 to 2, prior to the Ministerial level meeting of COTED which is scheduled to come to a close March 5. A special COTED Strategy Session was held March 3. It dealt exclusively with external trade negotiations/issues. Prime Minister Musa described the strategic session as “successful”.
CARICOM is scaling up the response of the youth sector to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic. In establishing what is described as an Inter-Agency Coordinating Mechanism, the regional institution hopes to streamline and combine human, technical, financial and other resources aiming to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS among young people.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat is enhancing the regional Public Education Programme for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) with a series of communications events beginning in Barbados this week.
CARICOM Heads of Government met on 2 and 3 March 2004 in Kingston, Jamaica, in an emergency session to consider the situation in Haiti.
The Heads of Government expressed dismay and alarm over the events leading to the departure from office by President Aristide and the ongoing political upheaval and violence in Haiti. They called for the immediate return to democratic rule and respect for the Constitution of Haiti.
With the passing of the former Prime Minister of Barbados Sir Harold St. John, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat will open a book of condolence for signature on Friday 5 March 2004 from 9_30 a.m. to 4_00 p.m.
The book will be located at the office of the CARICOM Secretariat, 3rd Floor Bank of Guyana Building. Representatives of the Government of Guyana and other Dignitaries, as well as members of the Diplomatic Corps have been invited to sign the Book. In addition, members of the public are also invited to visit the Secretariat to sign the book.
The Caribbean Community has lost one of its most outstanding sons with the passing of Sir Harold St John.
The former Prime Minister of Barbados served his country and the Region with an unwavering commitment for more than four decades during which his insightful and incisive views were of tremendous benefit to both country and Region.
Sir Harold had outstanding achievements in both politics and the law, particularly when he came to office as Barbados’s Prime Minister at a traumatic time in the nation’s history.
Allow me at the outset to extend my congratulations to you on your leadership of the Security Council during the month of February. Your diplomatic skills and gracious style have obviously ensured smooth and effective handling of the various matters which have come to the Council. I had the pleasure of visiting your great country just over a week ago and was impressed by its progress and its economic development as well as its strong support for multilateralism and the international system.