CHAIRPERSON of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar will preside over their 34th meeting which opens in Port-of-Spain, this evening.

She assumed the six-month rotational chair on July 1 and the gathering, which coincides with the observance of the 40th anniversary of CARICOM, will see representation from all Member States, with only one not represented at the level of Head of Government.
Three Heads of Government of Associate Members will also attend, a press release informed.
It said, in addition to outgoing Chairman  Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar, Mr. Michel Martelly, President of Haiti; Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Mr. Perry Christie; Prime Minister Barbados, Mr. Freundel Stuart; Prime Minister of Grenada, Mr. Keith Mitchell, as well as CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque will address the opening ceremony at the Diplomatic Centre, also in Port-of-Spain.
The historic conference, which is being convened in the city where the founding Treaty of Chaguaramas was signed on July 4, 1973, would feature a re-enactment of the signing tomorrow at the Chaguaramas Convention Centre.
The Heads of Government will be in an all-day retreat on July 5 and there is to be a cultural event that evening, featuring performers from the countries whose leaders signed the original Treaty in 1973 – Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago – as well as from Haiti, CARICOM’s newest Member State.
The release said high on the agenda at the forum would be charting a new direction for growth and development; transportation, the reform process in CARICOM and a proposal for a high-level meeting on persons with disabilities and special needs.
Special guests of the Heads are President of Equatorial Guinea, Mr. Obiang Nguema; Chairman of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States, Mr. Danilo Medina and President of Venezuela, Mr. Nicolás Maduro,.
The Conference ends on July 6.