(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Caribbean Community Governments, the Labour Movement and some three hundred private sector organizations are expected to be represented at Caribbean Connect; a High-Level Symposium on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) 28-30 June 2006 at the Sherbourne Conference Centre, Barbados.

Under the patronage of the Rt. Honourable Owen Arthur, Prime Minister of Barbados and Head of Government with lead responsibility for the CSME, Caribbean Connect is the implementation of a decision by CARICOM Heads of Government in February 2006, to hold high level consultations in four policy areas critical for economic development and transformation in the context of the evolving CARICOM Single Market and Economy. These were:

a. Enhanced Monetary Cooperation; the subject of follow-up consultations in Montego Bay, Jamaica, 18 May 2006

b. Macro-Economic and Sectoral Policy Harmonization

c. Production Integration; and

d. Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening.

This broad-based consultation is particularly relevant given the historic launch of the CARICOM Single Market in January 2006 and the consequent accelerated development of the CARICOM Single Economy policy framework.

Host of “Caribbean Connect”, the Rt Hon Owen Arthur Prime Minister of Barbados sees the symposium as “an excellent opportunity for focusing attention of policy-makers and the corporate sector on issues which the region must confront as it moves forward with the formulation of a Single Economy Framework”

Two landmark publications will be launched during the symposium, “Corporate Integration and Cross Border Development” and ‘Production Integration in CARICOM: From Theory to Action’.

Prime Ministers Hon. Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago; Chairman of CARICOM , host of the meting Rt. Hon. Owen Arthur, Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas of St. Kitts and Nevis and CARICOM Secretary-General H.E. Edwin W Carrington will address the opening Ceremony.