CARICOM has congratulated the Government and People of Haiti as they celebrate the country’s two hundred and twelfth independence anniversary on 1 January 2016.
The CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque in his congratulatory message to Haiti’s President, His Excellency Michel Martelly, paid tribute to “the solidarity, strength and unity of the Haitian people”, which he said “continued to inspire the Community”.
Outgoing Chairman of the Caribbean Community, the Rt. Hon Freundel Stuart in his end of year message reiterated the value of integration; noting that “the basis of the Community’s strength is its collective force”.
The Chairman highlighted some of the Community’s efforts during 2015, including its stance in major global fora on critical issues such as financing for development, the sustainable development goals and climate change.
With the firm resolution to strengthen CARICOM to provide greater benefits for its peoples, the Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize assumes chairmanship from 1 January 2016.
He takes the reins for a period of six months from the Rt. Hon. Freundel Stuart, Prime Minister of Barbados.
In a message to usher in the New Year, he placed the citizens of the Caribbean Community at the heart of the matter, stating: “We will continue our quest to improve our standard of living through providing a safe, viable and prosperous Caribbean Community.”
“We will continue our quest to improve our standard of living
through providing a safe, viable and prosperous Caribbean Community.”
“Our resolution is to continue to strengthen our integration movement.”
This past year has demonstrated in no uncertain terms the value of the Caribbean regional integration project to our Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and the influence that our united front can wield in the international arena.
Representatives of the Georgetown-based Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat recently visited East Berbice/Corentyne, Guyana, as part of efforts to strengthen relations with the Guyanese community.
The team of officials visited the locally and internationally acclaimed Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), St. Francis Community Developers (SFDC) to observe the organisation’s work.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown) CARICOM Secretary-General, Amb. Irwin LaRocque, in his end-of-year message, reiterated the value of the integration movement in providing an improved standard of living for CARICOM citizens.
The provision of an even better service to citizens was at the core of our Community’s efforts, he said. These included delivery of better health systems, improving the ease of doing business; and creating the avenues for investment and jobs.
CARICOM’s well prepared and experienced team of negotiators, and a focused, unified campaign, helped the Caribbean Community get its red line climate change issues all represented in the final Agreement at the just ended Climate Change conference, COP 21, in Paris, France. And, CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque has hailed the strong regional collaboration, given the critical importance of climate change to the Region’s survival.
“We saw our Community operating as its best on the international front in Paris. The coordination was superb and I want to say hats off to our negotiators – our technical negotiators led by Minister James Fletcher, the Minister of Sustainable Development of St. Lucia, and of course the role played by all our Ministers and Heads of Government. I was there feeling very proud of the coordination. We were of a single mind. We were one body with several parts working together in unison to achieve a set of goals.”
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on Wednesday urged the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to join a successful year for multilateral diplomacy by delivering trade deals which will drive global economic growth and uplift the poor.
Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator A.J. Nicholson made the call in his address, on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), to the plenary session of the Tenth World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.