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CARIFORUM MINISTERS MEET IN ST VINCENT

The Caribbean Rice Industry stands in the near future, to benefit from an almost 25 million Euro injection from the European Union to assist in moves to become more competitive.

Plans for finalisation of the project to utilise the funds are among topics to be discussed at the 12th Meeting of Ministers of the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) of ACP States, which begins in Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines on Wednesday October 23, 2002. The following day, Thursday October 24, the Ministers will meet in joint session with representatives of the European Commission. CARIFORUM consists of the members of the Caribbean Community, (with the exception of Montserrat) and Dominican Republic and Cuba.

Montserrat is, however, benefitting from the relationship with the provision of 4.3 million Euro to assist in the construction of a new airport. This project will also feature in the discussions. It is part of a wider assistance project involving other international donors including the UK Government, to provide air access on the volcano-stricken island.

These projects are part of the Caribbean Regional Indicative Programme of the 6th, 7th and 8th European Development Funds (EDF), which will all be reviewed during Wednesday’s Ministerial Meeting. The Ministers will attempt to clear up the bottlenecks, which have delayed implementation of the various projects. They will also look at plans for a 9th EDF.

A key item on the agenda will be the future of the CARIFORUM Secretariat, which is based in Georgetown, Guyana. Both the Ministerial Meeting and the Joint Session will address this issue as well as the way in which future relations between CARIFORUM and the European Union will be conducted.

Thursday’s joint session has an extended agenda before it including economic co-operation, trade negotiations and drugs. The Commission will present a draft report of a study entitled: “Caribbean Perspectives on Trade, Regional Integration and Global Repositioning.”

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