Press Releases

Madam Chairman, Minister Maria Levens; Outgoing Chairman, Minister Elvin Nimrod; Honourable Ministers, Delegates, Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat, Members of the media_

I take this opportunity to extend to each of you my very best wishes for a happy 2005 filled with meaningful achievements and good health. To visiting Ministers and members of their delegations_ welcome to Guyana and to the CARICOM Secretariat. I am confident that the next time I have the honour of welcoming you to the Secretariat, it will be in more spacious and salubrious surroundings.

Colleague Ministers and their distinguished delegates, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community and his hardworking staff. I would like to wish you all a healthy and prosperous new year. May CARICOM continue to be productive and beneficial to our Region.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) The challenges of globalization and the implications for higher education in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), facilitation of CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) Implementation, preparations for the February 16-17 Sixteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government and the Community's position on the recent tsunami disaster in Asia will be among the major issues for discussion the at the 15th Meeting of the Community Council of Ministers in Georgetown on Wednesday, January 5.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) The devastating 2004 hurricane season in the Caribbean, the recent catastrophic underwater earthquake and resulting tsunamis in Asian coastal and Island countries, an earthquake which caused millions of dollars in damagde in Dominica in November and quakes in Trinidad and Tobago and Cayman Islands provide a chilling backdrop to the participation by the Caribbean's small island and low-lying coastal states in the International Meeting to the Review the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA) for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) being held in Mauri

Madam Chairman, Minister Maria Levens
Outgoing Chairman, Minister Elvin Nimrod
Honourable Ministers
Delegates
Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat
Members of the media_

Colleague Ministers and their distinguished delegates, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community and his hardworking staff. I would like to wish you all a healthy and prosperous new year. May CARICOM continue to be productive and beneficial to our Region.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana)   Trade Ministers of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States, Cuba and the Dominican Republic will participate in a meeting with the European Union Commissioner For Trade, His Excellency Peter Mandelson on Thursday, 6 January 2005. The meeting will take place in Georgetown, Guyana, where Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ministers are scheduled to convene the Eighteenth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Friday, 7 January [2005].

Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, His Excellency Edwin W. Carrington on Monday (December 20) led a delegation of senior staff of the CARICOM Secretariat to Suriname for a meeting with the President of the Republic of Suriname, His Excellency Dr. Runaldo Venetiaan, who assumes the chairmanship of the 15-member Community for six months from January 1, 2005.

Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, His Excellency Edwin W. Carrington on Monday (December 20) led a delegation of senior staff of the CARICOM Secretariat to Suriname for a meeting with the President of the Republic of Suriname, His Excellency Dr. Runaldo Venetiaan, who assumes the chairmanship of the 15-member Community for six months from January 1, 2005.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat has reached out to four senior citizens' homes in Guyana as the Secretariat's management and staff seek to spread Christmas cheer to an important segment of the population in the Community with gift items aimed at making life more comfortable for the residents and staff of the homes. The presentations took place at a handing over function attended by Secretariat staff and representatives of the homes at the Secretariat's Georgetown Headquarters on Saturday (18 December).