CARICOM SECRETARY-GENERAL LEADS OFFICIAL VISIT TO SURINAME

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) CARICOM Secretary-General His Excellency Edwin Carrington will lead a team of officials from the CARICOM Secretariat on an official visit to Suriname from Monday 22 May to Wednesday 24 May.

During the mission, taking place on the initiative of the Secretary-General, the CARICOM Secretariat team will hold discussions with the President of Suriname His Excellency Runaldo Venetiaan, members of his cabinet, members of Parliament and other government officials regarding various aspects of Suriname’s participation in the Community, in particular the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). Suriname is one of the six Member States of the Community already participating in the CARICOM Single Market which came into being on 1 January 2006.

The Secretariat team, which includes Mr Irwin La Rocque, Assistant Secretary-General Regional Trade and Economic Integration and Ms Desiree Field Ridley, Adviser Single Market and Sectoral Programmes, will also interact with the private sector and other civil society groups in Suriname with respect to their experiences to date with the operation of the Single Market. The team will take the opportunity to highlight, for the Surinamese public, opportunities available under the CSME.

The Secretary-General said on Sunday that the visit is a timely one given the recent flooding in the country.

“It will give us an opportunity to get a sense of the effect of the flooding and better enable us to render assistance to Suriname,” he added.

Included in the Secretariat team will be four members of the Technical Working Group on Governance (TWG) established by the Conference of Heads of Government. Chairman of the TWG, Professor Vaughan Lewis, and his colleagues will meet with President Venetiaan in keeping with the Group’s mandate to meet with Heads of Government as part of the process of preparing its recommendations.