P.M. Musa chairs first meeting as CARICOM chief

Politics in Trinidad and Tobago have yet to settle down after that country’s last general election ended in a tie in early December. The Trinidadian press is reporting that one of the latest points of contention between current Prime Minister Patrick Manning and former P.M. Basdeo Panday is the People’s National Movement’s new pension scheme. The political climate on the twin islands has been closely followed by the rest of the Caribbean Community and was on the agenda at the recently concluded conference of the Heads of Governments of CARICOM. During that meeting, CARICOM chairman, Belize’s Prime Minister Said Musa, dispatched Bahamian P.M. Hubert Ingraham and Secretary General Edwin Carrington to meet with T and T’s President A.N.R. Robinson, Manning and Panday to, “Determine in what ways CARICOM can be of assistance to the country at this time”. And on the topic of assistance, the host country of the meeting, the Turks and Caicos Islands, have contributed thirty thousand U.S. dollars to the Government of Belize for post Hurricane Iris relief efforts. News 5 understands that the money will be used to reconstruct homes in the affected areas of the south.