Annan hails CARICOM as a model for regional cooperation
Thursday, July 8, 2004
UNITED NATIONS: The Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) is a model of how close cooperation can enhance economic growth and
promote better relations among countries, United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said in a message to CARICOM leaders meeting this week in Grenada.
Mr. Annan said the emerging collaboration of
CARICOM’s 15 members on many issues of joint interest should inspire all
regions, especially islands and coastal nations, about the potential benefits
to their economies and to greater harmony among nations.
“It can be instrumental in bringing about
the peace and stability and attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),”
he added, referring to the eight targets adopted at a UN summit in 2000. The
MDGs include pledges to halve extreme poverty and to slash child and maternal
mortality rates by 2015.
The Secretary-General urged CARICOM to
channel that spirit of cooperation into tackling the scourge of HIV/AIDS. One
of the MDGs is a promise to halt the epidemic’s spread.
“The Caribbean has some of the highest rates
of HIV infection in the world, and the epidemic is taking a devastating toll
on development,” he said in the message, which was delivered on Monday by
Anwarul K. Chowdhury, High Representative for the Least Developed, Landlocked
Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.
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