The Community Council of Ministers will be preparing a Community response to a range of diplomatic initatives including participation in the electoral process in Haiti as well as approving the agenda for the meeting with France President, Jacques Chirac scheduled for March 10. The Council will also be engaged in preparations for meetings of the CARICOM/Cuba Joint Commission and the United States Secretary of State.
Following on the decision of CARICOM Heads of Government taken at their Seventh Special Meeting , held in Chaguaramas, Trinidad and Tobago, last October, CARICOM Secretary General, Mr. Edwin Carrington, led a delegation to Haiti and held discussions on the regional grouping's assistance to that incoming CARICOM Member State in the run-up to its general elections, due on 19 March 2000.
Member States of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are to benefit this year from a project to establish and enhance their standards management capacity.
Three OECS States, the Commonwealth of Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, are to be brought in line with the regional mandate for standardisation while the other member states will receive assistance in developing their capacity in standards management to adequately pursue initiatives in export development and diversification.
Plans for the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) are expected to be further advanced at a meeting in Barbados on 16 February 2000. The meeting will be held at the Grand Barbados Hotel.
Two high level appointments have been made to strengthen the executive management team at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana.
Ambassador Albert Ramchand Ramdin, a top ranking official of the Republic of Suriname, was appointed Assistant Secretary General, Foreign and Community Relations. Just before his appointment, he served as Coordinator of the Caribbean Ambassadors' Caucus.
The establishment of the legal framework for the functioning of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSME) looms closer with the final touches being put to the last two instruments amending the Treaty of Chaguaramas.
Delegates to the Eighth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) have begun deliberating a number of key "bread and butter" issues pertinent to the well-being of the people of the Region. They will map definitive action in response to a number of challenges facing it, at a two-day meeting which began today, 7 February, 2000 at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat Headquarters in Georgetown.
A range of matters aimed at quickening the pace of, and strengthening the regional integration process in facing-up to the challenges in the new Century will be covered by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) officials when they meet in Georgetown on the 4-5 February, 2000 to prepare for the Eighth Ministerial Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED).
The Ministerial Meeting takes place at the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown on 7- 8 February, 2000.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM)/Canada cooperation continues with the signing today Wednesday, 2 February, 2000 of an agreement paving the way for the Regional organisation to receive funding for an electoral observation mission to Haiti in March this year.