(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)  Haiti’s ongoing recovery, the implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), and the challenges the Region has faced due to the global economic and financial crisis, are among topics that will be addressed at the 31st Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government from 4-7 July 2010, in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

The Meeting will be formally opened on Sunday 4 July at the Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay. The Conference Venue is the Rose Hall Resort and Spa, A Hilton Resort.

The Heads of Government will hold discussions on Haiti’s advancement towards national recovery and development and the Community’s continued active involvement in the relief, recovery and reconstruction efforts following the January 12 earthquake.

Also high on the agenda is an analysis of the Community’s position in the contemporary world. In this regard, discussions will be held under the topic `The Community in the Contemporary World; Securing its Place in the Face of Critical Changes and Challenges’.

The Heads of Government will also consider the progress of the CSME. Among the matters they will address on this subject are the challenges for compliance with certain regimes of the Single Market, and Member States’ effective participation in the seamless economic space.

And, even as the Region continues to advocate for the Community’s removal from the current band in which it has been placed with regard to the UK’s Air Passenger Duty (APD) on flights out of the UK, CARICOM Heads of Government will further examine this issue with a view to strengthening the Region’s position on what it considers as a discriminatory application of the APD. This discussion will be led by the Honourable, Hubert Ingraham, Prime Minister of The Bahamas and Lead Head of Government with responsibility for Tourism in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet. The APD has placed the Region’s tourism sector at a competitive disadvantage to other destinations which are further away but which are placed in bands that attract less duty.

His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, President of the Republic of Guyana and Lead Head of Government with responsibility for Agriculture in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet, will apprise his colleagues of developments that have taken place in the area of agriculture since their Thirtieth Regular Meeting in July 2009, in Georgetown, Guyana.

CARICOM Heads of Government at their Summit in Georgetown had issued a Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security reaffirming the importance of agriculture for Food and Nutrition Security and for the development of the economies of the Community. They had also reaffirmed their commitment to allocate the necessary resources to remove or alleviate the constraints to the further development of the agriculture sector. Several developments have taken place within the Region towards that end, including the launching of the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA) in March, in Paramaribo, Suriname. CAHFSA’s operations are vital to fulfilling the provisions of the Treaty of Chaguaramas which call for the establishment of an effective Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary regime and for the harmonization of laws, administrative practices and procedures in respect of agriculture.

CARICOM Heads of Government will also consider other subject matters under broad themes including Economic and Financial Issues; Matters related to External Trade; Human and Social Development; Critical Issues in the Development of the Community; Strengthening of the Community; and Information and Communication Technologies for development.

There will also be a discussion on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the implications and impact on the Region. With failed efforts to stem the flow of oil, there are concerns that given the flow of currents, the shores of the Caribbean will be affected.

Contact:  piu@caricom.org