SVG assumes Chairmanship of CARIFORUM for one year

St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) has assumed its role of Chair of the Caribbean Forum of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (CARIFORUM) for a one-year period.

This country’s Chairmanship began on July 1 and will run until June 30, 2020.

On Tuesday July 2, Percival Marie, Director General of CARIFORUM briefed SVG on its role as Chair of CARIFORUM. He met with Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Commerce, Sir Louis Straker and other senior officials in the Ministry. The Director General also met with senior officials from other key line Ministries within the Government Service of SVG.

Within the period of Chairmanship, it is expected that SVG will host two Ministerial meetings and senior official meetings on various schematic areas.

The Chairmanship role rotates annually in alphabetical order among the CARIFORUM Member States of Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

CARIFORUM was established to manage and coordinate relations between the Caribbean States which are signatory to the Lomé (New Cotonou) Convention. Its remit includes programming and managing implementation of regional resources made available to the Caribbean region by the EU through the European Development Fund (EDF), coordination of implementation of the CARIFORUM/EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), managing CARIFORUM/EU Political Dialogue, promoting Intra-CARIFORUM Cooperation as well as promoting CARIFORUM relations with British, Dutch and French Overseas countries, territories, departments and collectivities in the Caribbean.

The CARIFORUM Directorate is located within CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana.