Guyana to host 23rd CARIFORUM Council of Ministers Meeting

Georgetown, GINA, March 14, 2016
Foreign Affairs Ministers of CARIFORUM are to meet in Guyana on March 17. This is for the Twenty-Third Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM). Discussions will focus on the implementation and programming of the 10th and 11th European Development Fund (EDF).

Between the 10th and 11th EDF, Guyana would have received approximately €89.4M to execute major infrastructural works which include sea and river defence and coastal management projects. The most recent allocation of €34M covered allocations until 2020 and will see projects being executed in the fields of: climate change adaptation, disaster reduction and sustainable infrastructure including sea defences and building upon successful cooperation in the past.

CARIFORUM member states benefit directly from regional resources under the Caribbean Regional Indicative Programmes (CRIP) which are financed by the EDF. These allocations are utilised by member states to execute major infrastructural and key developmental projects.
The CARIFORUM Members are: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
Other areas to be discussed include the CRIP, the implementation of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the future of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, the future of ACP-EU Relations in the post-Contonu period and the upcoming eighth ACP Summit of ACP Heads of State and Government which is scheduled for May 31 to June 1 in Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea.

The ACP Meeting will also focus on recent EU developments on financial services and receive reports from the two CARIFORUM institutions, the Caribbean Export Development Agency and the Caribbean Regional Information and Translation Institute. 
The opening ceremony will feature presentations from,   H.E. Lener Renauld, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Haiti and Chair of CARIFORUM; Hon. Carl Greenidge, Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperative Republic of Guyana; and Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, Secretary-General of CARICOM.
CARIFORUM functions to manage and coordinate policy dialogue between its participating States and the EU; promote integration and cooperation in the Caribbean; provide technical guidance and assistance to participating States in meeting the commitments and securing the benefits provided for in the CARIFORUM-EU EPA. It also coordinates the allocation of resources and manages the implementation of programmes financed by the EDF and the Member States of the EU and any other sources as approved by the Council of Ministers. It also provides support for the effective participation of CARIFORUM in the institutions provided for in the CARIFORUM-EU EPA.
Haiti’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Lener Renauld will chair the meeting which will be held at the Marriott, Hotel in Kingston.