(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) At least five Heads of Government will attend the Convocation on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) which will be held in Bridgetown, Barbados on Friday 9 and Saturday 10 October.

Heads of Government who will attend the forum are the Honourable Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, the Honourable Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica, Dr. the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Honourable Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. The Honourable David Thompson, Prime Minister of Barbados, and Lead head of Government with responsibility for the CSME will host the Convocation.

Prime Minister Thompson, His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM, Mr. Carol Evelyn President, Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC), and Ms. Jacqueline Jack, President, Caribbean Congress of Labour will address the opening ceremony of the Convocation.

The Convocation brings together stakeholders to receive and consider the Report of an Audit of the implementation of the CARICOM Single Market which came into effect in 2006. The Forum will also chart the way forward with regard to the Single Economy. The Audit was mandated by the Heads of Government at their Twenty-Ninth Meeting held in Antigua and Barbuda in July 2008.

The Convocation wraps up a series of Community events in Bridgetown that included the Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and a signing ceremony to amend the Contribution Agreement for CARICOM Trade and Competitiveness Programme funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).