THE 37th Regular Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government opens this afternoon at the National Cultural Centre (NCC) with a grand cultural programme. And all is set and ready for the opening of the bi-annual meeting which coincides with CARICOM Day held annually on the first Monday in July in observance of the establishment of the body on July 4, 1973.
The opening ceremony will be addressed by CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque; President David Granger; Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness; Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Allan Chastanet; Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves; President of Suriname, Desi Bouterse; Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Keith Rowley; and CARICOM Chairman and Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit.
CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador LaRocque, said that his Secretariat has received confirmation from all member states, while noting that Associate States will also be represented at the meeting.
Additionally, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet is expected to participate in bilateral talks with member states.
Ambassador LaRocque explained that CARICOM countries have good and friendly relations with Chile and the extension of an invitation to President Bachelet to attend the Heads of Government conference is one aimed at strengthening ties with the South American country.
He noted that her predecessor Sebastián Piñera had attended a previous Heads of Government conference in Grenada.
“The Community over the past years has made a conscious effort to build relations with our partners in our hemisphere. It is not at the expense of our traditional partners by any stretch of the imagination, but Chile has been a partner to all of our countries bilaterally, in very good and friendly bilateral relations between Chile and all our members,” said Secretary- General LaRocque.
“Issues of the hemisphere” will be discussed he said with President Bachelet, while noting that Chile is very strong in areas of disaster-related matters and can be helpful in providing scholarships and facilitating capacity-building programmes.
Meanwhile, the business sessions commence on June 5 at the Pegasus Hotel, Kingston, and will end the following day. The Heads of Government will discuss the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, the free movement of people, the Guyana- Venezuela border controversy and the Belize and Guatemala border issue, correspondent banking and de-risking, CARICOM relations with Cuba and stateless citizens (The Dominican Republic) are among the other items on the agenda for the meeting.
Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, said Guyana is pleased to be co-hosting the conference. He emphasised that the meeting is part of a normal rotation of chairmanship, but on this occasion Guyana has stretched its hand out to host the meeting, given the devastating natural disaster that had occurred in Dominica last year.
Dominica currently holds the chairmanship and was scheduled to host the conference, but could not assume that responsibility as it is still recovering from the impact of Tropical Storm Erika, which battered that island-nation last year.
“Guyana is the site for the meeting but is not chairing the meeting. Guyana is very happy to provide facilities to have CARICOM colleagues host the meeting,” said Greenidge.
CARICOM comprises 14 full member states, namely Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
There are five associate members, and these are Anguilla, Bermuda, The British Virgin Islands, The Cayman Islands and The Turks and Caicos Islands.
The opening ceremony will be streamed live by the CARICOM Secretariat and the National Communications Network (NCN) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoMPyXyGaXo and http://today.caricom.org/ and on Face Book Live at: https://www.facebook.com/caricom.org .