The Caribbean Wants to Step Up Cooperation

The Association of Caribbean States (ACS) is gearing up for the oncoming Fourth Summit in Panama, trying to do its homework in terms of social and economic achievements for its people.

The summit´s Organizing Committee is already working in Panama City under the watchful eye of Panama´s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Lewis Navarro.

According to this senior official, a Protocol to the Convention Establishing the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Caribbean will be approved in the meeting. This addresses certain legal points of interpretation of the Convention that require clarification prior to ratifying the Convention and bringing it into force. These points have now been resolved to everyone´s satisfaction; and the Protocol will also be signed at the ACS Summit in Panama.

The agreements on air transport and sustainable tourism are significant steps towards cooperation in two areas of vital economic interest to the region. Located at the cross-roads of South and North America and accounting as for two-thirds of the tourist business of the whole of Latin American and Caribbean region, the Greater Caribbean is poised to make a strategic thrust in these two areas and to link to them the goal of stimulating expanded inter-Caribbean trade.

Other significant achievements in 2004 include completion of a project for training in Spanish and French for nationals of the Organization of East Caribbean States (OECS). In trade, the fourth Business Forum of the Greater Caribbean was successfully held in Santiago de Cuba. A seminar/workshop was held for international trade negotiators and detailed technical work has been completed on the treatment of small economies in international trade agreements.

In natural disasters, a project was completed for the updating of building codes to withstand wind and earthquake damage within the scheduled time. And the ACS was selected to be one of the coordinating bodies in preparing the Latin American and Caribbean regional position for the 2nd World Conference on Early Warning Systems held in Germany in October.

Through the ACS Special Fund, a total of 19 projects in the focal areas have been supported with a total value of $1.3 million. This past year contributions and technical cooperation were received from the governments of France, Finland, Germany, the Republic of Korea and Turkey, the United Kingdom and the Regional Councils of Martinique and Guadeloupe.

A Greater Caribbean Regional Cooperation Strategy is now being prepared with the collaboration of the secretariats of CARICOM and SICA and a Network of National Focal Points for International Cooperation of member countries. Work has advanced on the Caribbean Sea Initiative, the move to have the United Nations declare the Caribbean Sea to be a Special Area in the context of sustainable development.

The meeting approved all these initiatives and endorsed the arrangements for the holding of the 5th Summit in Panama, including a special tribute to the former President of Trinidad and Tobago for his role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court.