GEORGETOWN, Guyana — The Government of Japan is assisting the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to develop a regional integrated environmental policy which is intended to enhance environmental sustainability as a driver of investment, economic growth and a better quality of life in the region.

The programme — called the Caribbean Community Environmental Policy and Action Programme — is being financed by the Japan-CARICOM Friendship and Cooperation Fund to the tune of US$465,920. Japan is putting up US$275,920, while Caricom will contribute the remainder.

The programme, a release from the Caricom secretariat said, will seek to strengthen the linkages between development and the environment, within the context of the Caricom Single Market and Economy.

“The policy will foster a new approach to the environment, social and economic activities and the region’s development challenges, one that is effectively coordinated and strategic, resulting in transformed patterns of growth.

“Caricom intends that at the end of the period, there will be ‘agreement on the policy priorities and key themes to be addressed in the draft policy’, which would have been arrived at through an ‘open, transparent and inclusive consultative process’.

“Further, a draft Caricom Policy and Action Programme in relation to the environment and natural resources management would have been developed and the capacity and state of readiness of selected Member States for implementation of the Environmental Policy would be enhanced,” the secretariat said.

It is anticipated that the project will begin in the second quarter of 2013 and will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2014.