CARICOM to improve and enhance relations with Cuba

Saint Vincent and Grenadines' Prime Minister and President of CARICOM, Ralph Gonsalves, said this organization of Caribbean states will further encourage its relations with Cuba, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic in 2008 to the benefit of regional development.

Gonsalves also announced that in 2008 CARICOM will continue supporting the creation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) with a defined multilateral relation, trade agreements and important environmental accords.

The intensification of cooperation among Caribbean nations is precisely the bottom line in the agenda of the CARICOM Conference of twenty eight Heads of State and/or Government to take place on July 1-4, reports PL news agency.

During that meeting Barbadian Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, will assume CARICOM presidency. Mr. Arthur is currently in charge of giving a boost to the CSME and is actually responsible of the achievements of the Single Market already functioning in the area.

The summit will also include highly topical subjects such as maritime and air transport, regional security, agriculture, free movement of the people in the area, as well as the establishment of a Fund for Caribbean Development and an Agency for Regional Development.

The opening ceremony will take place at the Parliament headquarters in Bridgetown and the lectures at the Barbados Hilton hotel.

CARICOM is made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Granada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Santa Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Surinam and Trinidad and Tobago.

Source: ACN

Indigenous Peoples Address Ways to Ensure Participation

Indigenous Peoples Address Ways to Ensure Participation
Excerpt from United Nations Press Release on 22 May 2007:

MILDRED GANDIA REYES, representing the Indigenous Caucus of the Greater Caribbean, said her organization had submitted recommendations at other sessions, but had received no follow-up. She asked the Forum to urge the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to support the recovery of Caribbean heritage, culture and writings, and, further, to sponsor special regional meetings with indigenous experts as it worked with endangered education.

She pressed States and UNESCO to provide resources to develop language and cultural exchange programmes, in order to support ancient languages that had been virtually wiped out by dominant languages. Further, she encouraged States, including Puerto Rico, to review public education material and remove erroneous historical accounts that had rendered indigenous peoples invisible, or had misrepresented them in any way. She asked Caribbean States, particularly Puerto Rico, to work with indigenous Caribbean islanders to promote indigenous human rights and ensure that Constitutions recognized them, as such. She urged the Association of Caribbean States, the Rio Group and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to establish a special regional fund for indigenous representatives, so they are able to attend Forum events throughout the Second Decade.

Source: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/hr4923.doc.htm

Caricom in Africa-South America alliance

By RICKEY SINGH

BRIDGETOWN - A significant new front for trade, economic and political cooperation between Africa and South America, with the Caribbean Community's involvement, has been established.

It came at the recent "First Africa-South America Summit" in the Nigerian capital of Abuja that was preceded months earlier by preparatory meetings in Addis Ababa, Ethopia and Santiago, Chile.

Two Caribbean Community leaders were among some 60 Heads of State and Government from Africa and South America attending the summit earlier this month - Presidents Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana and Runaldo Venetiaan of Suriname.

See full story at:
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/business/html/20061214T210000-0500_116674_OBS_CARICOM_IN_AFRICA_SOUTH_AMERICA_ALLIANCE.asp