BARBADOS – A high-level roundtable involving Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Iceland in new partnerships for sustainable development in renewable energy, fisheries management and trade convenes in Barbados next Tuesday, March 25, 2008.
The three-day conference at Hilton Barbados, promoted by Iceland’s Island Growth Initiative, is also meant to launch a multi-year development cooperation partnership between Iceland and the Caribbean. It will be attended by government ministers and technocrats, the private sector, international agencies and university personnel. Their expertise spans climate change, geo-thermal and hydro energy development, use of marine resources and ocean governance and gender issues.
Another high point of the agenda is a business and investment forum involving governments and the private sector.
Besides Barbados and Iceland, the other participating countries are Jamaica, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and St. Lucia.
Representatives are also attending from the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, the Caribbean renewable energy development project and the World Bank.
Barbados’ Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and International Business, Christopher Sinckler, will deliver the welcome address at the formal opening session at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade of Iceland, Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, will also speak at the ceremony.
The following day, Wednesday, March 26, at 11:00 a.m. at that same venue, there will be a press briefing at which the Foreign Minister and his Icelandic counterpart will give an overview of the proceedings.
This Caribbean forum on Sustainable Development of Island resources is jointly organised by the Government of Iceland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and this country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership with the Caribbean Community Secretariat.
