(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown , Guyana ) Saturday 30 June 2007: Prime Minister of Barbados, the Rt. Hon. Owen Arthur, will address the formal opening ceremony of the 28th Meeting of the Conference of the Heads of Government of CARICOM Sunday 1 July 2007, in the Courtyard of the Barbados Parliament, in Bridgetown . Prime Minister Arthur is Incoming Chairman of CARICOM and Head of Government with Portfolio Responsibility for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.
Other speakers at the opening ceremony are Outgoing Chairman, Dr. the Hon. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham, Prime Minister of the Bahamas , Hon. Stephenson King, Acting Prime Minister of St. Lucia, and HE Edwin Carrington, CARICOM Secretary General.
The business sessions of the Conference will be held at the Barbados Hilton. The main theme of the Summit is “functional cooperation”, under which Heads of Government will consider a preliminary report on the future of West Indies Cricket and a review of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, held earlier this year in nine member states of the Community.
Also on the agenda of the 28th Meeting is what CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington describes as the “very vexed and very difficult” question of air transport within the Community which, he says, affects the commingling of the Caribbean peoples.
The Meeting concludes on 4 July 2007.
