P.J. PATTERSON HEADS CARICOM TEAM TO MEETING ON HAITI IN CANADA

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Former Jamaica Prime Minister Most Honourable Percival Patterson is leading a delegation from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to a meeting of a Coordination Committee created to organise an International Conference which will have as its objective, the devising of a Strategic Plan for the Reconstruction of Haiti following the catastrophic earthquake of 12 January 2010.

The Co-ordination Committee was established at a meeting in the Dominican Republic on Monday 18 January which was held to examine the best means of addressing the situation in Haiti.

The Committee will be responsible for organising the International Conference and will hold its first meeting on Monday, 25 January in Montreal, Canada. CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General Foreign and Community Relations, Ambassador Colin Granderson, Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Mr Jeremy Collymore and former senior United Nations official with experience in disaster management Mr Hugh Cholmondely will be accompanying Mr Patterson to the meeting. CARICOM’s participation is being assisted by the Government of Spain.

At the meeting, CARICOM was appointed as a member of the Committee along with Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the United Nations, the European Union, the Organisation of American States, the Rio Group, the United States, Canada, Brazil and the Inter-American Development Bank.

The Strategic Plan is intended to go beyond emergency assistance and would contribute to strengthening the viability and the political, economic and social stability of Haiti, in the medium and long term.