The bonds of cooperation between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Japan will be further strengthened when their representatives meet in Georgetown, Guyana for their Seventh Consultation on 8-9 November 1999.

During the first round of the two-day meeting, the deliberations will be directed at a range of policy issues including the CARICOM/Japan Economic Technical Cooperation and Cultural Exchange in which the representatives will review activities from 1993 to the current period, and consider priority areas for further cooperation.

A series of bilateral discussions between individual CARICOM Member States and the CARICOM Secretariat and Japan are also part of the planned programme of the Consultations.

The Consultations will also cover areas such as CARICOM/Japan Cooperation in multilateral fora including the reform process of the United Nations (UN).

Other areas the Consultations will cover include CARICOM/Japan trade and investment promotion; and environmental issues.

CARICOM /Japan Consultations have been on-going since 1993 and have covered a wide range of areas of cooperation. Among the sectors are disaster management, business and tourism development, and agriculture.