The Tribune

PRIME Minister Perry Christie is leading a ministerial delegation to the 25th Inter-Sessional meeting of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) being held in Buccament, St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Inter-Sessional is scheduled to be held today and tomorrow.

Accompanying the Prime Minister will be Fred Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration; Shane Gibson, Minister of Labour and National Insurance (who leaves for Panama after the meetings) and various government aides.

Financial Services Minister Ryan Pinder, the Bahamas’ High Commissioner to CARICOM Picewell Forbes, and Keva Bain, the acting Director of Trade, travelled ahead of the PM’s delegation to take part in the 16th Meeting of the COFAP Ministerial Session on regional trade issues on March 7.

High on the agenda will be “advancing the regional agenda for sustainable development using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT),” the decision of the 34th Regular Meeting of the Conference held in July 2013 in Trinidad and Tobago.

Other agenda items include, the economic situation facing Member States and the region - a framework for regional growth and development; reform process in CARICOM - status of the draft five year strategic plan; and draft protocols for adoption for consideration to article 83 of the revised treaty; establishing the CARICOM common fisheries policy; recognising the OECS Economic Union in the Context of the Revised Treaty; and on Contingent Rights.

The agenda will also include, citizen security, negotiations for a CARICOM-Canada trade and development agreement, positioning CARICOM in the forthcoming climate change deliberations, criteria for membership and associate membership of the community, ruling of the Dominican Republic Constitutional Court on nationality, issue of reparations for native genocide and slavery, preliminary discussions on the use of marijuana for medical/health purposes, border issues, and the situation in the Turks and Caicos Islands. This last agenda item was requested by the Bahamas.

The Prime Minister and his delegation are scheduled to return to Nassau on Wednesday.