The first major round of deliberations by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) organs will kick-off in Georgetown, Guyana later this week with the Fourteenth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), 31 January-1February 2003. The focus will be on regional trade and economic development. Issues pertaining to Energy are expected to feature prominently with attention being paid to the Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP).
Setting the stage for this Community Organ deliberations is a two-day session among regional officials which began earlier today (29 January 2003), laying the groundwork for the extensive Ministerial work planned for the coming weekend.
The Ministers in their two-day deliberations will also be looking at external economic trade relations. Specifically, bilateral trade negotiations with Venezuela is listed among the range of agenda items to come before the COTED forum.
Among the matters for urgent attention by the COTED are those issues coming out of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in which key Caribbean interests were highlighted in a Multi-disciplinary Meeting in Georgetown last year. The Ministers will be following-up on their earlier initiative.
In other areas of the regional trade and economic development programme which COTED over sees, are also the operationalisation of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and development of the CARICOM Rice Industry. The Ministers will look at recommendations from the special working group, the Regional Rice Monitoring Mechanism.
