OECS summit in St Lucia next week

OECS Director General Dr. Len Ishmael

Thursday, November 6, 2003

CASTRIES, St Lucia: Heads of Government of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are due to meet in St. Lucia, November 10th and 11th at the 38th Meeting of the OECS Authority, the highest decision-making body for the nine member grouping.

The meeting will discuss proposals for repositioning the Castries-based OECS Secretariat, and the financial position of the Organisation.

Several cooperation initiatives will also go before the meeting for consideration. Among them a proposal for institutional strengthening support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); and new areas of closer collaboration with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe.

There is expected to be a strong focus on economic development issues. The meeting will receive an update on the implementation of the OECS Economic Development Strategy - a roadmap for the development of the sub-region, which was created through wide-ranging consultations with public, private sector and non-governmental organizations in OECS Member States.

The Agriculture and Tourism sectors will receive special consideration and there will be some discussion on the stabilization and transformation of OECS economies, many of which have been feeling the pinch of the changes in the global economic environment. The meeting will also receive an update on Dominica's economic recovery programme.

The meeting is expected to further advance the sub-region's thrust toward an OECS Economic Union and will consider a discussion paper on completing a Customs Union in the OECS. A draft OECS Common Citizenship Act, and an update on plans for a common OECS Passport will also be presented. There will also be an update on the revision of the Treaty of Basseterre, which created the OECS. It is being revised to reflect the current moves towards an economic union of the sub-region.

The meeting will also receive a report on recent discussions between the British Government and CARICOM on Montserrat's participation in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). 

Participants will also receive an update on the status of current trade negotiations involving the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union (EPA/EU).

The meeting will also receive a status report on the upgrading of the Antigua-based Directorate of Civil Aviation to an OECS Civil Aviation Authority as mandated by international agencies.

This is the first meeting of the OECS Authority for new Director General Dr. Len Ishmael who assumed the leadership of the Secretariat in May this year.

The nine Member States of the OECS are Antigua/Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands. 

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