Meeting of CARICOM Heads begins today

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – The Caribbean Community Council of Ministers will review its first strategic plan during a session today. The discussion will form part of the annual Caricom Heads of Government meeting, which is being hosted by Antigua & Barbuda from July 1 to 4.

A release issued by the Caricom Secretariat said the plan outlines a comprehensive development agenda for Caricom, focusses on practical and achievable goals and the need to target a selected set of specific outcomes within specified timeframes.

The Secretariat said the plan will also focus on promoting regional integration and filling gaps in human capacity development, intra-regional transportation, production and trade, food security and youth development.

The five-year plan has been in the works since 2012, after Caricom leaders decided to reconsider the organisation’s future direction at their inter-sessional meeting in Suriname. It spans the period 2015-2019 and “seeks to reposition the Community to better secure its future in a rapidly changing environment.”

The current draft of the plan will be reviewed at a meeting today before a final version is presented to the Heads of Government for consideration.

During the meeting, the Heads of Government hope to finalise the plan’s top priority areas and the arrangements to ensure its implementation.

During consultations on the plan, outgoing Caricom chairman, Dr Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent & the Grenadines, said it was “… evident to all reasonable persons of discernment that our region would find it more difficult by far to address its immense current and prospective challenges unless its governments and peoples embrace strongly a more mature, more profound regionalism.”

Newly elected Prime Minister Gaston Browne officially takes up the position of Chairman of Caricom today and will give his address during the event’s opening ceremony.