(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     In presenting his Letters of Credence to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, new Ambassador of Chile to CARICOM, H.E. Fernando Schmidt said the Caribbean will benefit next year when his country multiples its contribution to the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP).

While making his inaugural remarks on Wednesday, 15 October at the Headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat, the Ambassador noted  his country  has also demonstrated its commitment to the Region through the Chilean funded first ‘Ibero-American and Caribbean Workshop: Alternatives to Work Together’ on South-South Cooperation. The workshop began on Wednesday at the CARICOM Secretariat and the engagement between the Ibero-American countries and the Caribbean saw representation from more than 20 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.

These recent examples, Ambassador Schmidt said, are a clear demonstration of the importance Chile gives to jointly working with the Region.

The CARICOM-Chile relations spawned support to each other in international and hemispheric fora including to candidacies and a Technical Cooperation Plan of Action that covers several areas such as Agriculture, Spanish Language Training, Diplomatic Courses, Trade, Natural Disaster Management and South-South Co-operation.

Ambassador LaRocque said that he was looking forward to the parties agreeing on a date for a Third Meeting of the CARICOM-Chile Joint Commission to strengthen co-operation and collaboration.

“Ambassador, your country continues to demonstrate its commitment to the relationship through its determined efforts to implement more than a dozen initiatives to the benefit of Member States of the Community, over the two-year period of the Plan of Action.  I am pleased to note that the triangular co-operation arrangement under this Plan, including Chile, the Food and Agricultural Organisation and CARICOM to assist an important institution of our Community, the Caribbean Health and Food Safety Agency, can now move forward given that a Chief Executive Officer is in place for the fledgling organization,” Secretary-General LaRocque told the newly accredited Chilean envoy.