CARICOM Office in Haiti

Caricom office to re-open in Haiti

Source: Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation - Barbados

Friday, 19 October 2007

President René Préval is expected to deliver the feature address at the re-opening of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Representational Office in Haiti on Friday, according to a CARICOM statement issued here.

It said that the ceremony will take place at the new office in the heart of the capital, Port au Prince and that the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Finance of Barbados Senator Tyrone Barker will represent Prime Minister Owen Arthur, the present CARICOM Chairman.

CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington and Dennis Robert, who is representing the Ambassador of Canada to Haiti, will also address the function. "The CARICOM Representational Office (CRO) is being re-opened with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), three years after it was closed following the interruption of democratic governance in 2004," the CARICOM statement said. "The office was then located in the Embassy of The Bahamas and had been established at that time with the support of the government of the Kingdom of Norway.

The statement said that Ambassador Earl Huntley, a St. Lucian diplomat and administrator with wide experience, will be in charge of the CRO. CARICOM said that the CRO is being established to facilitate more speedily the integration of Haiti into the regional integration grouping "with particular emphasis on the Single Market and Economy; identify and mobilise domestic, financial and other resources; promote relations with the media; and undertake public education programmes".

"The ratification by the Haitian Parliament of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas including the Single Market and the Economy and the re-opening of the Representational Office within two weeks of each other augur well for the quickening of the pace of the fuller integration of Haiti into CARICOM," Carrington said.

Deputy Secretary-General of CARICOM, Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite, said that CIDA's assistance regarding the CRO is part of the wider CARICOM Trade and Competitiveness Project.

"Among the goals of the project is to assist Haiti to prepare itself for full participation in the CSME. This is being done within the context of the wider goal to provide more and better opportunities for the people of CARICOM to participate in and benefit from the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

"It also should enable all CARICOM citizens to understand, participate and actively engage in economic activities," she added. CMC