CARICOM

(CARICOM Secretariat)) Dr. the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, will lead his delegation to a special meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Energy which will be held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on 1 March. Mr. Charles Kirnon, Deputy Premier of Montserrat is also to attend the special one-day meeting. The ministers responsible for energy will discuss and seek agreement on a CARICOM Energy Policy.

WASHINGTON, CMC - The Organization of American States (OAS) says the electoral victories of Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and his counterpart in Grenada, Dr. Keith Mitchell, are as a result of the confidence the electorate in both countries have showed in their ability to lead their respective countries. Mitchell lead his New National Party (NNP) to a clean sweep of all 15 seats in the Fenruary 19 general elections in Grenada, while Stuart won a slender two-seat majority in the Barbados polls on February 21.

PANAMA CITY, Panama, CMC – Foreign ministers from three Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries will attend the 18th Ordinary Meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) on Friday, according to a statement from the Trinidad-based ACS Secretariat. It said that the foreign ministers from Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago will attend the one-day meeting of the Council that is “the principal Organ for policy-making and direction of the Association whose purpose is to identify and promote the implementation of its policies and programmes”.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are being urged to review their visa regimes so as to lure more visitors to the region. The recommendation comes from the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Aviation Task Force, a highly focused committee established to facilitate air transportation into and throughout the Caribbean and to enhance airlift, following a meeting in Antigua to review issues affecting intra-regional travel and make recommendations for increasing consumer demand.

VIENNA, CMC – The Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) Monday said that defamation laws remain widespread across the Caribbean that could even lead to imprisonment. IPI said that it carried out a comprehensive legal review of the situation in the region and that “every independent state considered geographically or culturally part of the Caribbean maintains some form of criminal defamation that could result in imprisonment”.

LONDON, CMC – A new report has said that scrapping the controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD) could generate 60,000 jobs by 2020. The report commissioned by four airlines, British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic, is also expected to boost gross domestic product (GDP) by almost one per cent. The APD, instituted in 1994, is a British environmental tax aimed at offsetting aviation’s carbon footprint. In its initial stage, it was set at £5 (US$7.85) per person.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkey, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     Monday 26 November continued the unveiling of the prodigious array skills and talents that reside within the walls of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat Headquarters in Georgetown, Georgetown.
The occasion was the opening of the CARICOM Staff Talent Celebration 2012; an activity which has formed a main part of the Secretariat’s calendar. This year, it is both poignant and symbolic, marking a decade-old event and dedicated to CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite.

CARIFORUM food exporters will benefit from some much needed assistance when the Caribbean Export Development Agency rolls out a €500,000 Special Assistance Programme funded under the 10th EDF programme of the European Union (EU), to help prepare them for existing and anticipated food safety regulations in key export markets.

Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassador Irwin LaRocque this week welcomed the Director General of the Inter-American Institute  for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA) Dr Victor Villalobos as his first visitor from an institution since assuming office on August 15.

Ambassador Irwin LaRocque has been selected to serve as the seventh Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) by the Heads of Government.
LaRocque, 56, a national of Dominica, replaces Sir Edwin Carrington of Trinidad and Tobago.