Madam Chairman, Minister Maria Levens
Outgoing Chairman, Minister Elvin Nimrod
Honourable Ministers
Delegates
Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat
Members of the media:
Colleague Ministers and their distinguished delegates, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community and his hardworking staff. I would like to wish you all a healthy and prosperous new year. May CARICOM continue to be productive and beneficial to our Region.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) Trade Ministers of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States, Cuba and the Dominican Republic will participate in a meeting with the European Union Commissioner For Trade, His Excellency Peter Mandelson on Thursday, 6 January 2005. The meeting will take place in Georgetown, Guyana, where Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ministers are scheduled to convene the Eighteenth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Friday, 7 January [2005].
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat has reached out to four senior citizens' homes in Guyana as the Secretariat's management and staff seek to spread Christmas cheer to an important segment of the population in the Community with gift items aimed at making life more comfortable for the residents and staff of the homes. The presentations took place at a handing over function attended by Secretariat staff and representatives of the homes at the Secretariat's Georgetown Headquarters on Saturday (18 December).
Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community are aware of the recent intense campaign directed against you and the United Nations.
The Heads of Government are concerned by these attacks and take this opportunity to express our continued confidence in you and your commitment to the ideals of the United Nations.
The Heads of Government are cognizant of the fact that 2005 is likely to be a seminal year in the history of the United Nations and believe that your leadership is vital to the organization at this time.
The Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) will this week be officially designated an "International Best Practice" by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) during a Press Launch of the publication: Common Goals, Shared Responses: A Case Study on the Pan-Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP). The publication, produced jointly by the UNAIDS and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariats, will be launched at the Half Moon Hotel, Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 13 December 2004 at 5.00 p.m.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) As the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) shapes up for the 2005 implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) the future looks promising for entrepreneurs, but a continued unified front among Member States remains important to the CARICOM integration process.
December 8 of each year has been designated by Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community and the President of Cuba as CARICOM-Cuba Day. This day marks the anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the first four independent CARICOM countries and the Government of Cuba in 1972. That historic act in Caribbean history was celebrated in December 2002 as leaders of the countries of the Caribbean Community and Cuba gathered in Havana, to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of those relations.