ST. KITTS AND NEVIS GETS READY TO HOST 30TH INTER-SESSIONAL MEETING OF THE CONFERENCE OF HEADS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE CARICOM IN FEBRUARY

Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 11, 2019 (SKNIS): St. Kitts and Nevis is busy preparing to host the 30^th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which takes place from 26-27^th February 2019, at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort and Royal Beach Casino.

A local planning committee comprising of officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Tourism, Culture and Health; the Government Information Service, security personnel, Immigration, the Customs and Excise Department, the St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA), the ICT Department, Public Works and Transport Services is busily preparing for the high-level meeting. The Committee is chaired by Ms. Kaye Bass, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Approximately 140 participants are expected to attend the deliberations of the Conference comprising Heads of Government of all CARICOM Member States and Associate Members and their delegations.

Heads of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Caribbean Development Fund (CDF), Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission, and the University of the West Indies (UWI) will also be in attendance.

Ahead of the conference, Secretary General of the CARICOM, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and Chef de Cabinet in the Office of the Secretary General, Mrs. Charmaine Atkinson-Jordan, met with Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris, Premier of Nevis and Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Mark Brantley and senior government officials in December 2018 for a briefing.

At the briefing, Ambassador LaRocque told Prime Minister Harris (who assumed the chairmanship of the Conference of CARICOM from January 1 to June 30, 2019) that “the Chairman’s function as Head of CARICOM is very significant since you act on behalf of the Heads in between sessions and the like. You will see me a lot more often in the next six to seven months.”

The CARICOM Secretariat has formally convened the Inter-Sessional Meeting (by Friday, 21 December 2018), in keeping with Rule 5 of the Rules of Procedure for Meetings of the Conference of Heads of Government.

CARICOM has 15 Member States, which include Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. There are five Associate Members, which include Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands.

The 29^th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the CARICOM was held in Port-au- Prince, Haiti.