COTED

Hyatt Regency
Good morning, on behalf of Prime Minister the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the Government welcome to Trinidad and Tobago.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     The 39th Special  meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED),  slated for Georgetown, Guyana on Friday, will provide the last ministerial platform for environment and sustainable development ministers to frame a regional strategic approach for the upcoming Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Work is moving apace to incorporate the former Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) into the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat as a Specialised Department in keeping with a decision taken at the 20th Intersessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Belize in March 2009.

  (CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Eighteenth Meeting of the Caribbean Community Council of Ministers will take place on Friday 19 May in Georgetown, Guyana. The Council is expected to consider the agenda and arrangements for the Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM slated for 3-6 July in St Kitts and Nevis.

Your Excellency, the President of Guyana, Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Delegates, Staff of the Secretariat, Members of the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Mr. President, it is with pleasure that I welcome you, Ministers of Agriculture and delegations to our new Headquarters Building so beautifully provided by the Government of Guyana. We think it was a worthy end to the waiting.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) President of the Republic of Guyana and Lead Head of Government in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet with responsibility for Agriculture, His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, today underscored the importance of the Region’s agriculture industry in reducing the growing food import bill and attaining food security for the Region.

  (CARICOM Secretariat, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Six remaining Caribbean Community Member States have agreed to complete all arrangements and join the CARICOM Single Market by 31 March 2006.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Chairman of the Twentieth Meeting of CARICOM’S Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), the Honourable Dr. Errol Cort, Minster of Finance and Economy of Antigua and Barbuda, has called for the Region’s private sector to “aggressively retool and adopt modern approaches and new business practices” to effectively operate within the new sphere of the CARICOM Single Market (CSM).

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Just days after the signalling of the launch of the CARICOM Single Market by the Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Hon. Patrick Manning, CARICOM’s Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) will meet in Georgetown, Guyana to continue discussions on the full implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).