(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) which opens in Barbados on Sunday 1 July, will consider critical issues under the broad context of increased functional cooperation in the Region, according to CARICOM Secretary General, H.E. Edwin Carrington.
At a media clinic carried throughout the Community via videoconference from Bridgetown, Barbados on 28 June, the Secretary General said that under the theme `A Broader Perspective on Functional Cooperation: A Community For All’, the Conference would address functional cooperation issues including Human Resource Development, Education, Health, Training.
Dr. Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary General, Human and Social Development added that the new focus would provide a mechanism for the Region to extend the boundaries of cooperation, and to be responsive to the challenges of the international arena. Functional Cooperation, he said, was very dynamic and cut across the foreign policy and security spheres, for example.
The full implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) with its focus on enhancing the quality of life for citizens of the Region, is another of the key issues that the Heads of Government will address. Key elements such as the free movement of persons and the CARICOM passport will be discussed in this regard.
Among the other matters that will engage the Leaders during the three-day meeting which ends on 4 July, are Air Transport, Security, the legacies of Cricket World Cup 2007, the operationalisation of the Caribbean Development Fund, the Competition Commission, the Agriculture Donor Conference held on 2 June in Trinidad and Tobago, the just-concluded Conference on the Caribbean held in Washington DC, USA and negotiations for Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union.
