CARICOM Chairman engages key stakeholders during Guyana visit

CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, paid a
visit to Guyana on Monday during which, among other things, she engaged
CARICOM Secretariat staff and was awarded the Order of Roraima by the
President of Guyana.

The Chairman was met on arrival in Guyana by Foreign Minister Dr Karen Cummings and CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque.

The Chairman and Secretary-General then journeyed to the Smith
Memorial Congregational Church where the funeral was being held for
Guyanese legal luminary Mr Brymor Pollard, and signed the Book of
Condolence at the church.   Secretary-General LaRocque, in an earlier
tribute, had described Mr Pollard’s service to the Caribbean Community
as ‘distinguished and exemplary’ and said the CARICOM Secretariat and
the Region were heavily indebted to Mr Pollard for his considerable
legal skills which he brought to bear in drafting many of the
instruments that helped to frame Community law during his 16 years at
the Secretariat, first as a consultant, then as Legal Counsel and the
first General Counsel in 1994.

The CARICOM Chairman then addressed staff at the Secretariat, stressing the importance of the work of the Community and its Secretariat to the Region’s development and the delivery of benefits to the people. She promised a further engagement with Staff during the month of March.

Next was the Investiture Ceremony at the Ministry of the Presidency, where President David Granger conferred the Order of Roraima on Prime Minister Mottley. The award comes as Guyana marks its 50^th anniversary of becoming a Republic.  The Ceremony was attended by Guyana’s Prime Minister Mr. Moses Nagamootoo, Foreign Minister Cummings, Minister of State Ms Dawn Hastings-Williams, Barbados’ Attorney-General Mr Dale Marshall, Secretary-General LaRocque, and CARICOM’s Assistant Secretary-General for Foreign and Community Relations Ambassador Colin Granderson.

The Chairman and Secretary-General then paid a Courtesy Call on the Leader of the Opposition and his team, at his Office.

The Chairman and Secretary-General meeting with Opposition Leader Mr
Bharrat Jagdeo (2nd right) and his teamThe visits to the President and
Leader of the Opposition come in the run-up to Guyana’s General
Elections scheduled for 2 March 2020.

The Chairman and Secretary-General also met with several private
sector representatives, including Mr Timothy Tucker, Senior Vice
President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI);
GCCI Member Mr Richard Rambarran, and Mr Gerry Gouveira, Chairman of the
Private Sector Commission.

The regional private sector is expected to be represented at the
upcoming Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in
Barbados on the 18-19 February for discussions on regional development,
including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). Heads of
Government, at their last Meeting in July 2019 in St. Lucia, welcomed
the progress made by the private sector towards the establishment of a
regional private sector body – CARICOM Private Sector Organisation
(CPSO) to be designated an Associate Institution of the Community.  The
Heads had earlier agreed, at a Special Meeting on the CSME in Trinidad
and Tobago in 2018, to  have a formalized, structured mechanism to
facilitate dialogue between the Councils of the Community and the
private sector and labour.