(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)  At least thirteen Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are expected in Montego, Bay, Jamaica, for the Thirty-First Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government which begins formally on Sunday 4 July 2010.

The Hon. Bruce Golding, Prime Minster of Jamaica and Lead Head of Government with responsibility for External Trade Negotiations in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet, will host the Meeting. He assumed the Chairmanship of the Community on 1 July 2010. The outgoing Chairman is the Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica.

Both Prime Ministers Golding and Skerrit will address the opening ceremony, as will the Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis; the Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, and His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM.

The Hon. Baldwin Spencer, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister; The Hon. Hubert Ingraham, Prime Minister of the Bahamas; The Hon. Tillman Thomas, Prime Minister of Grenada; His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana; His Excellency René Préval, President of Haiti; the Hon. Stephenson King, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia; Dr. the Hon. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Hon. Hubert B. Hughes; Chief Minister and Minister of Finance of Anguilla and Hon. McKeeva Bush Premier of Cayman Islands, have confirmed their attendance at the Summit.

The Hon. Freundel Stuart, Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados; the Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belize; Her Excellency Manorma Soeknandan, Ambassador of Suriname to CARICOM; and the Hon. David Burch, Minister of Labour, Safety and Home Affairs of Bermuda will lead their countries’ delegations to the Meeting.

A special feature of the Opening Ceremony at the Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay will be the presentations of scrolls of commendations to CARICOM nationals who were on the frontlines in Haiti providing medical, military, search and rescue, and other interventions in the aftermath of the earthquake which occurred on January 12.

CARICOM Heads of Government will use the Summit as a platform to consolidate alliances with Third States and other international partners through dialogue with special guests including His Excellency Ban Ki Moon, United Nations Secretary-General; His Excellency José Miguel Insulza, Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States (OAS); and Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Contact:  piu@caricom.org