(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is off to a flying start this year with a series of activities planned for January 2008.
Secretary-General of CARICOM, His Excellency Edwin Carrington began his hectic schedule on Monday 7 January when he held discussions with Sir Peter Ricketts, Permanent Under Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, United Kingdom.
Sir Peter visited a number of countries in the Region on a fact-finding mission and discussed a number of issues with the Secretary-General, including security, economic integration, the recently concluded Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between CARIFORUM and the European Union (EU), Climate Change and development of the Region’s human resource capacity.
The CARICOM Secretariat team included Assistant Secretary-General Human and Social Development Dr Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary-General Foreign and Community Relations, His Excellency Ambassador Colin Granderson and Assistant Secretary-General Trade and Economic Integration, His Excellency Ambassador Irwin LaRocque.
The exchanges were considered by both sides to be highly beneficial and were seen as valuable preparations for the upcoming Meeting of the Caribbean-UK Forum in London later this year.
On Thursday 10 January, the CARICOM Task Force on Functional Co-operation will meet with officials of the Secretariat to present its Draft Report. The Task Force, led by Dr Greene, was established at the 27th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government July 2006 in St Kitts/Nevis to “review the status of functional cooperation and make recommendations on the most appropriate mechanisms to enhance skills and capabilities and the general quality of life of Caribbean citizens, thereby making the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) more viable.”
Next week the focus switches to Suriname where two Community Institutions will be launched. On Friday, 18 January 2008 a critical piece of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy structure – the Competition Commission will be inaugurated in Paramaribo. This launch will be preceded on Thursday, 17 January 2008 by the establishment, also in Suriname, of the Caribbean Regional Institute for Translation and Information (CRITI). This institution has been created by CARIFORUM, the Caribbean Forum of African Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP).
The Competition Commission is designed to implement the CARICOM Competition Policy which aims to prevent the abuse of dominant position in the Single Market, as well as to protect and promote consumer interest and welfare. The CRITI is aimed at enlarging CARIFORUM language capacity, taking into account the many different languages of CARIFORUM Member States. CARIFORUM consists of the Independent Member States of CARICOM and the Dominican Republic.
Three days after the Suriname activities are completed, phase I of the task set by Heads of Government at their 12th Special Meeting held on December 7 last in Guyana on the issue of Poverty and the Rising Cost of Living in CARICOM States will be undertaken. The Heads of Government established a technical team to make recommendations regarding items on which removal or reduction of the Common External Tariff (CET) can have a significant impact on the cost of living in CARICOM Member States without prejudicing the production interest of Member States.
The team of regional technocrats is scheduled to meet on 21 January 2008 in Guyana and to submit their recommendations for decision to the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) which is scheduled to meet on 25-26 January 2008.
One day prior to that meeting the COTED will have a joint session with the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) on the same issue.
Secretary-General Carrington on reviewing the packed programme for January observed that while January was set to be an extremely busy month for CARICOM, he stated wryly that “indications are that February is unlikely to be any different.”
