BARBADOS – Barbados will host the Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Conference from this Sunday, July 1, to Wednesday, July 4.
Heads of Government from the 15 CARICOM member states and five Overseas Caribbean Territories (OCT) will meet at Hilton Barbados for three days of intense discussion on several agenda items.
These range from: Matters relating to the CSME; Health and Human Resource Development, including preparations for a regional summit on non-communicable diseases; the Free Movement of Skilled Community Nationals; Crime and Security (Common Visa Regime); and Developments related to the Conduct of External Trade Negotiations; to the future of West Indies Cricket and a Report on the Staging of ICC CWC 2007; Border Issues; and Air and Maritime Transportation.
A salient item down for discussion centres on the major issues emanating from, and following up to, the recently convened Washington Conference on the Caribbean.
Relatedly, the Heads of Government will hold talks and exchange views with a number of specially invited guests, including Congressman Charles Rangel, who is Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee in the US Congress; Don McKinnon, Secretary General of the Commonwealth; and the President of Chile, Michele Bachelet.
Barbados’ Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, who will assume the Chairmanship of CARICOM from the outgoing Chair, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is slated to address Sunday’s formal opening ceremony. This will take place at Parliament Buildings yard starting at 4:00 p.m. It will be carried live on radio and television.
