(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) meet in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday 24 May at a Special Caucus to discuss the current economic circumstances of Member States arising from the on-going global economic and financial crisis.

The meeting, convened at the request of the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, will allow Heads of Government an opportunity to review the measures taken individually and regionally to combat the crisis and to fashion a response to the continuing effects of the global contagion on the Region. The Caucus comes one week before, CARICOM Heads of Government are expected to participate with other world leaders at a United Nations (UN) Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development to be held at UN Headquarters, New York, USA from 1-3 June 2009.

CARICOM Heads of Government, as a group, first addressed the challenge of the crisis at a meeting of the Bureau of Heads of Government last November in Antigua and Barbuda and looked at the situation again in Belize in March at their 20th Inter-Sessional Meeting. Groups of leaders have also been meeting to address particular issues arising from the crisis.

The Community’s Ministerial Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP) also looked at the issue during their meeting in January in Barbados and the Task Force they established at that meeting will be contributing to the information made available to the Heads of Government at their meeting in Port of Spain on Sunday.

The Caribbean Development Bank, (CDB) the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) have been invited to the Special Caucus.