Twenty-Third Meeting of the Council of Ministers of CARIFORUM to be held in Guyana

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

According to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat , the Meeting 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 Secretariat notes that 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 May 31-June 1, 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.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge is also expected to make a presentation.

CARIFORUM refers to the Caribbean Forum of ACP Group of States which are signatories of the Georgetown Agreement. This Agreement was signed in 1975, and it created the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). The grouping is composed of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific states.

All Participating States in CARIFORUM, with the exception of Cuba, are signatories to the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement or “Cotonou Agreement” and the EPA, respectively.

The CARIFORUM Members are: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.