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Caricom needs spirit of solidarity, says Carrington
BY RICKEY SINGH, Observer Caribbean correspondent
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
SECRETARY general of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Edwin Carrington, feels that "now more than ever" the people of Caricom "expect a deeper spirit of cooperation and solidarity" from the Heads of Government to overcome "the very challenging problems we face".
Carrington, the longest serving secretary general of the community, will lead the list of speakers at tomorrow's ceremonial opening of the 30th Heads of Government at the Guyana National Cultural Centre.
Speaking in a telephone interview yesterday, he recalled the preamble of the Grand Anse Declaration of 20 years ago that captured the commitment of Caricom leaders to "work expeditiously, in the spirit of co-operation and solidarity" to promote and strengthen the region's economic integration movement.
There could be "no alternative" to such a determination by all heads of government, he stressed, adding that there were "no barriers that cannot be removed in a spirit of compromise to achieve consensus".
Principal speakers for the opening ceremony, expected to last for some two hours and will include a cultural presentation, will be the previous Caricom chairman, Prime Minister Dean Barrow of Belize; Prime Minister Tilman Thomas of Grenada, as the community's newest head of government; Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, who hosted last year's 29th regular summit; and Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, summit host and incoming chairman for the next six months.
Former Prime Minister of Jamaica, PJ Patterson is also scheduled to deliver an "appreciation" address on being honoured with Caricom's highest award - Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC).
With the possible exception of President Rene Preval of Haiti and St Lucia's Prime Minister Stephenson King, all other heads of government are expected to be in attendance for the summit which will get underway with a special caucus tomorrow.
Today, there will be a pre-summit meeting of the Community's Prime Ministerial Subcommittee on External Relations to be presided over by Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding. Other heads of government who are members of this subcommittee are the president of Guyana and the prime ministers of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia.
Issues for consideration will include a general review of Caricom's external trade and economic relations, with a special focus on a new agreement on trade and development with Canada.
The incorporation of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery into the Caricom Secretariat as a new department focused on external trade negotiations, and the functioning of a recently established Implementation Unit for the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union, will be on the work agenda of the meeting.
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