Press Releases

Excellency it is with great pleasure that I receive the Letter from the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Her Excellency Maria Elizabeth Levens, accrediting you as Ambassador of Suriname to the Caribbean Community.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is spear-heading an all-out effort to get the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) back on stream, mobilising support from various sectors of civil society to shore-up the efforts of the executive body of the regional media house.

A special emergency meeting of CARICOM Ministers responsible for Information will be convened in Antigua and Barbuda on Monday, 28 January 2002, to hammer out a course of action to ensure the resumption and sustainability of the functioning of the CMC.

Officials and Ministers of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), one of the chief organs of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), meet in Guyana on 23-25 January, to deliberate on a host of trade related and economic issues affecting the regional integration movement.

The COTED Officials will first meet on 23-24 January at the Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel to set the agenda for the Ministerial session on 25 January.

The Community Council of Ministers of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will examine the status of implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the widening of the Community - its top agenda items -at the start of its first rounds of deliberations for the year later this week.

The Council, the second highest decision-making body of the Community, will convene its Ninth Meeting in Georgetown, Guyana on 26 January 2002, following the conclusion of Meetings by another Community Organ, the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED).

The Third Meeting of the Project Management Group for the European Union-funded project on "Strengthening the Institutional Response to HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean" was convened at the Hilton Hotel in Trinidad and Tobago from 17-18 January, 2002.

Mr. Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has been honoured by a consortium of associations representing the Caribbean diaspora in North America. The CARICOM Secretary-General, together with Secretary-of-State, United States of America, Colin Powell were last year's recipients of the National Collation on Caribbean Affairs (NCOCA) highest award, the Pinnacle Award.

Mr. Carrington has been recognised for his dedicated service in the cause of regional integration, and for his sterling representation of the Caribbean in International Affairs.

The Bureau of the Conference of Heads of Government met in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands on 10-11 January 2002 and considered the current political situation in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Members of the Bureau expressed the concern felt throughout the Community at the present situation and were anxious to see a return to normalcy in that key Community Member State. They also felt that the Community owes it to the people of Trinidad and Tobago and to the wider Caribbean Community as well, to do whatever lies within its capacity to help bring about that normalcy.

The Bureau of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community expressed serious concern over the temporary closure of the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). The media organisation announced its closure last Friday, January 4, 2002.

At its Fourteenth Meeting held on January 10-11 at the Beaches Resort and Spa, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, the four-member Bureau said its concern stemmed from the vital role the regional media must play in the integration process.