The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is attaching great importance to the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, which opened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Monday.
CARICOM Heads of Government at their recent summit in Barbados stated that they;
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – Caribbean leaders have endorsed a three-day meeting to discuss the development of education in the region.
Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell said the Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Sir Hilary Beckles had made a major presentation to regional leaders on education during their annual summit that ended here over the weekend.
“We talking about leveraging our knowledge regionally and internationally, and not in just one area,” he said, adding that his regional colleagues “were extremely impressed”.
Heads of Government, acutely aware of the opportunity provided to build truly vibrant societies and resilient economies and chart a new era of sustainable development for the Region and the world, discussed the culmination of three on-going and integrated global processes. They noted that the Region has been actively involved in the processes which will be brought to a climax in major inter-related high level International Meetings in the latter half of 2015.
The 36th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was held at Bridgetown, Barbados, 2-4 July 2015. The Prime Minister of Barbados, the Right Honourable Freundel Stuart, Q.C; MP, chaired the proceedings.
I am pleased to be back in Barbados for this formal handing over ceremony of the Chair of the Caricom Community. It has been an honour and a privilege for The Bahamas and for me personally to have served as its Chair. I now pass the mantle onto the distinguished Prime Minister of Barbados. I am certain that the community will be in excellent and capable hands.
I congratulate the new Heads of Government and Heads of State to this forum and join in welcoming them. I pledge to work with all of you for the betterment of our community.
It is indeed a great pleasure and an honour for me to address this distinguished gathering on behalf of the people of St.Kitts and Nevis. A strong spirit of fraternity and kinship has been fostered among Caribbean leadership for more than four decades, especially among the tiny group of officials, technocrats, experts and academicians who frequent our Caricom Summits and meetings.
St.Kitts and Nevis
I recognize that protocols have been established, but please allow me to recognize our Host Governor General Sir Elliot Belgrave.
The Highly distinguished Chair Hon Freundel Stuart, Prime Minister of Barbados
Colleagues and friends from across the Caribbean.
The UN Secretary General and the Commonwealth Secretary General
Fifty years ago, in response to a letter from Errol Barrow received on the 27th day of June, 1965, the then Premier of British Guyana, Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, came to Barbados on the 4th day of July, 1965 and discussed with Mr. Barrow the formation of a Caribbean Free Trade Association.
Barrow and Burnham subsequently interested the then head of Government of Antigua, Vere Cornwall Bird, in their project and at Dickenson Bay in Antigua, the agreement establishing Carifta was signed.
Outgoing Chairman of the Caribbean Community, the Rt. Honourable Perry G. Christie, on Thursday focused attention on the youth and urged his colleague Heads of Government to ensure the Region’s young people were educated, and were immersed in the formal economies of Member States.
He also made a call for more emphasis to be placed on teaching methodologies to meet the learning needs of the bottom 50 per cent of students.
I am honoured to join fellow Heads of Government here in beautiful Barbados at this Thirty-Sixth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community. We wish to record our gratitude to our host, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, to the government and to the friendly people of this island, for the gracious welcome extended to our delegation and for the excellent arrangements made for this Conference.