(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The second Conference on the Caribbean (CoC) will take place in New York, USA, from 19-20 June 2008.

The Conference, which coincides with events to mark Caribbean-American Heritage Month in the United States, will focus primarily on education and investment, as well as facilitate engagement with the Caribbean Diaspora.

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government, at their Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Barbados last year had agreed to a dedicated visit to New York City in 2008. Congressman Charles Rangel, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the United States House of Representatives, with whom the Heads met in Washington DC during the first Conference on the Caribbean in June 2007, was a special guest at the Heads of Government Meeting. Congressman Rangel is also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The highly acclaimed first Conference on the Caribbean was held under the theme `Conference on the Caribbean: A 2020 Vision’ and its highpoint was a CARICOM-US summit when CARICOM Heads of State and US President George W. Bush held talks on 20 June 2007 at the US Department of State.

The Conference represented the first time that policy-makers, the International Financial Institutions, the academic community, private sector and the people of the Caribbean and the United States interfaced in one Conference to examine the growth and development of the Caribbean Community from a regional perspective.

The United States is the Region’s closest developed country neighbour, its major trading partner and home to the largest number of migrants from the Caribbean.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org