On Tuesday July 2, 2019, Mr. Percival Marie, Director General of the Caribbean Forum of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (CARIFORUM) briefed St. Vincent and the Grenadines on its role as Chairmanship of CARIFORUM. Mr. Percival Marie held meeting with Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Commerce, Hon. 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 St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines assumed its role of Chair of CARIFORUM for one (1) year effective July 1, 2019 until 30 June 2020. Within the period Chairmanship, it is expected that St. Vincent and the Grenadines will host two (2) Ministerial meetings and senior official meetings on various schematic areas.
The Chairmanship role rotates annually in alphabetical order between the CARIFORUM Member States which comprises 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.
The Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM) were 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.