CARIFORUM Ministers meet in Guyana today

The Twenty-Third Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM) will be held in Georgetown, Guyana today, Thursday 17 March 2016 under the chairmanship of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Haiti, H.E. Lener Renauld.

The Opening Ceremony, which begins at 10:00 this morning will feature:

•  H.E. Lener Renauld, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Haiti and Chair of CARIFORUM;
•  Hon. Carl Greenidge, Vice-President & Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Guyana;
•  Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, Secretary-General of CARIFORUM.

 [su_box title=”CARIFORUM” style=”soft” box_color=”#b7e4f8″]The Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) is a subgroup of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and serves as a base for economic dialogue with the European Union. It was established in 1992. Its membership comprises the 15 Caribbean Community states, along with the Dominican Republic.[/su_box]

The Twenty-Third Meeting of the Council of Ministers of CARIFORUM will consider matters which are high on its policy agenda, with a view to advancing coordinated action on a range of policy objectives and priorities. In this regard, the Meeting will focus on the implementation and programming of the 10th and 11th European Development Fund (EDF) Caribbean Regional Indicative Programme (CRIP), the implementation of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the Future of the ACP — including the Eighth ACP Summit of ACP Heads of State and Government, scheduled for 31 May-1 June 2016 in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea — and future ACP-EU Relations in the post-Cotonou period. The 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.