Cartoon heads of government discuss common challenges

Georgetown, 5 July – 42nd CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting (caricum) from today with an agenda focused on common challenges such as the impact of Covid-19 and natural disasters.

The program of the meeting, which ends tomorrow, includes an assessment of coordinated responses to the above problems and the negative consequences of the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

As well as the floods of Guyana and Suriname, and the damage left by Hurricane Elsa, especially the islands of the so-called Antilles.

The meeting will take place virtually and in a virtual session, during which heads of government will also review the region’s economic development, prioritizing food production and food security.

With a post-pandemic forecast for Covid-19, they will analyze the reactivation of regional air transport, the strengthening of initiatives to encourage tourism in the region, and improvements in the communications sector.

At another point of the meeting, they will discuss financial transparency, punitive lists, risk elimination, crime and security.

The two-day meeting will be chaired by the incoming CARICOM President, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Brown, succeeding his Trinidad and Tobago counterpart Keith Rowley.

CARICOM celebrated its 48th anniversary the day before the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas by the leaders of several countries in the region.

The regional integration organization includes Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.