On 25 September 2002, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat received a Diplomatic Note dated 24 September 2002 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica informing that the Government of Jamaica had “indicated to the Government of the United States of America its intention to resume bilateral ‘Open Skies’ negotiation on suitable dates between 21 and 30 October 2002.”
Jamaica
It is my pleasure to be here this afternoon to join you for this closing session of the Seventh Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development, which is dedicated to the presentation of the CARIFESTA VIII Programme by the Surname National CARIFESTA Commission led by Minister Walter Sandriman. I regret that I could not be with you before but as the Deputy Secretary-General would have pointed out in her remarks at the opening session, my absence was unavoidable.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has despatched a three-member team to Jamaica as part of the International Observers to the electoral process in that country. General elections are being held in Jamaica on Wednesday 16 October, 2002.
The team is led by Ambassador Colin Granderson, Assistant Secretary-General, Foreign Policy and Community Relations, CARICOM Secretariat and includes Dr S.R. Surujbally, Chairman of the Elections Commission of Guyana, and Mr Carson Raggie, Chief Elections Officer, Saint Lucia.
At a meeting at the Hilton Hotel, Kingston Jamaica, on 18-19 February 2002, Health Ministers of the Caribbean countries held a successful round of discussions with representatives of leading pharmaceutical Companies on access to care for people living with HIV/AIDS in the Region. This meeting was the first stage in a process and comes close on the heels of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica developing their own national plans in partnership with United Nations agencies and the pharmaceutical industry.
The Member States of the Caribbean Community have followed with continued interest, the evolution of the political crisis in Haiti. They did so against the background of the Region's continued concern about the political crisis in that country and the impact of that crisis on the Haitian people, whose democratic, social and economic aspirations it holds dear.
Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community Mr Edwin Carrington, has wrapped up a one-week tour of Jamaica where he spoke to wide ranging audiences on a range of issues related to the Caribbean Court of Justice. The week of public education activities on the Court ran from 24-30 April 2001.
Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, Mr Edwin Carrington, has re-emphasised that establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is imperative to the creation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
The Secretary-General, who is in Jamaica for a week long series of public education programmes, 24-30 April 2001 to build public awareness of the CCJ, stressed that dialogue with the people of the Region, including the stakeholders, is a fundamental step leading to the establishment of the Court.
Heads of Government of CARICOM and CANADA, at their Sixth Summit Meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica on January 19, 2001, were briefed by the Government of Guyana on the controversy between Guyana and Venezuela.
The Heads of Government noted that the Government of Venezuela continued to make claims to Guyana's territory.
As someone associated with the development of the Single Market and Economy, I most excitedly welcome the publication of the Caribbean Trade and Investment Report 2000. Empirical research has to be the foundation of meaningful policy-making, especially in our rapidly changing regional, hemispheric and global environment, and it is in that regard that this publication will contribute immensely to informing our deliberations on the deepening of the integration process.
The Fifth Special Meeting of the Legal Affairs Committee comprising the Hon. Ministers responsible for Legal Affairs and Attorneys-General of the Caribbean Community was convened at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Kingston, Jamaica from 19-21 June 2000. The welcome address was delivered by the Hon. David A.C. Simmons, QC, MP, Attorney-General and Minister of Home Affairs, Barbados, substantive chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee. Consonant with existing practice, the Hon. A.J.