Asst. Secretary General updates on summit of the Americas
The heads of government spent the morning huddled in a caucus meeting, discussing the upcoming Summit of the Americas in April and the global crisis. This afternoon Assistant Secretary General of CARICOM, Edward Green, updated the press on the overall objectives of the conference and outcome of the meetings.
Edward Green, Assistant Secretary Gen.
“What they will do, first of all, is to request the committee of Central Bank governors which look after the regulations of the region to present to them within another two to three weeks proposals on how they could synthesize and act on a collaborative way to bring the impact of the financial crisis under some control. As a result of this, they decided that they will ask the Central Bank governors to look in particular, not only at the regulations, but look at the varying impacts on countries. The heads have made it quite clear in this discussions this morning that they needed to have a clear road map of how they would proceed to deal with the financial crisis and that is exactly what they did this morning and they have identified that by the end of March, they would have met to at least identify collective strategies because various countries have various responses. So they’re interested in a regional response to crisis, that’s one. The second objective they have for the meeting is in preparation for the negotiations on climate change and renewable energy which will have a landmark in December. They are quite clear that they need to come up with some very important collective decisions as to how the region will go forward. They also in the context of the discussions will be trying to resolve some of the outstanding issues as they move forward in the implementation of the E.P.A. and that is going to be a discussion in itself and it will engage the member states in really trying to come to grips with how they move on with that implementation as smoothly as possible.”
Another important outcome will be to provide guidelines to the Commission on Youth Development, which is mandate to come up with policy for risk factors involving youths. And this note to our viewers, tune in tomorrow to our breakfast show, Open Your Eyes when we will be hearing from the Prime Minister of Barbados, David Thompson as he discusses a wide range of issues impacting the Caribbean Community. That is tomorrow morning beginning at six-thirty.
