Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley will lead a delegation to this year’s Thirty-Ninth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Montego Bay, Jamaica, being held from tomorrow to Friday, July 6.
As a newly elected leader, Mottley will also deliver one of the keynote addresses at the opening ceremony, which gets under way tomorrow, CARICOM Day, at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, beginning at 4 p.m. A reception will follow immediately after the opening ceremony.
Following the adoption of the Agenda, the Prime Minister and her CARICOM colleagues will have several items to consider at the three-day conference, including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, for which she has lead responsibility; matters from the Council for Finance and Planning; Making the CSME More Effective, and a Legal Opinion on the Entitlement of Haitian Nationals to an Automatic Stay of Six Months upon Arrival in CARICOM Member States.
When regional leaders meet in caucus, they will examine Security and Border Issues; relations between Belize and Guatemala and Guyana-Venezuela; Matters Related to the Caribbean Court of Justice, including the CCJ’s Pensions Rules 2017; and the Constitutional Relationship of the Overseas Territories and the United Kingdom.
CARICOM Heads of Government will also consider a number of reports, namely the Report of the Marijuana Commission and the report of the Commission to Review Jamaica’s Relations within CARICOM and CARIFORUM Frameworks.
Other agenda items are: Building Resilience (Disaster Resilience in the Caribbean Community Post-Hurricanes Irma and Maria); and Approval of Draft Declaration on Climate Change; Delegation of Authority to the Community Council on Matters Related to the Issue of the CARICOM Laissez-Passer; a CARICOM Regional Strategy for The Development of Statistics; and the Third United Nations High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases.
A highlight of the conference will be an exchange of views with special guests, the President of Chile, Sebastian Pinera Echenique, and the President of Cuba, Miguel DÃaz Canel.
Other members of the Barbados delegation include: Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Dr Jerome Walcott and his Permanent Secretary, Simone Rudder; Director of Finance and Economic Affairs, Ian Carrington; Chief Research Officer, Paula Byer; the Prime Minister’s Personal Executive Aide, Jessica Odle-Baril; Advisor, David Commissiong; Director of Communications Designate Charles Jong; and Foreign Service Officer 1, Sandra Gittens.
The Thirty-Ninth Regular Meeting of the Conference will be preceded by the Eighteenth Meeting of the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP) tomorrow morning. (BGIS)
