The CARICOM/Mexico Summit has been hailed as a most productive and beneficial meeting and the regional grouping has been given the assurance, that their concerns will be raised at the upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit to be held in Mexico.
Suriname’s President and Chairman of CARICOM Desiré Bouterse made the comments during a press conference at the Hilton Hotel, following talks between the Mexican delegation led by President Felipe Calderon and Heads of State of the 15-member CARICOM grouping.
According to Bouterse, the two sides were able to agree on commitments in specific areas of co-operation among them transportation, energy, tourism, trade and investment. President Bouterse said that the regional grouping has been assured by the Mexican President that he will carry their message to the G20 when that meeting is held in his country, focusing in particular on such issues as the current criteria that is used to assign financial support for development among small island developing states. He further stated that the Caribbean Community is confident that Mexico fully understands their concerns as small island developing and middle
income countries and will be able to advocate forcefully on our behalf.
“CARICOM is also pleased that Mexico will lend us their experience and expertise in the further development of our tourism industry. Further we have agreed to share experiences and strategies in an effort to develop small and medium sized enterprises in the private sector,” he added.
The Chairman said that in addition to the aforementioned, the two sides have agreed to develop strategies to address the issues of transnational crime and citizen security and in that regard he said, they will be involved in the follow up activities identified by the plan of action developed during the 6th Summit of the Americas.
Meanwhile, he also announced that Mexico and CARICOM will also be working closely with Haiti in an effort to assist in the reconstruction process in that country.
