PM Skerrit chairs 45th meeting of OECS Heads

The OECS Heads of Government will meet in Grenada on Thursday and Friday, May 24th and 25th, for the 45th meeting of the OECS Authority.

The Honourable Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica will chair the meeting. He will be serving as Chairman of the OECS Authority for the very first time. Prime Minister Skerrit takes over from the outgoing chairman, Prime Minister Balwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda.

At the top of the agenda for the two-day meeting will be discussions on the next phase of the work to create the OECS Economic Union. The Heads will receive a revised draft Economic Union Treaty and are expected to mandate the OECS Secretariat to undertake a region-wide public education campaign on the treaty.

Other key issues slated for discussion at the meeting include the Secretariat’s work programme, air and sea transport within the OECS, the groupings’ strategic responses to the new geopolitical realities, the Cricket World Cup legacy, current economic negotiations to include the EPAs, WTO-Doha round and several CARICOM Bilateral agreements and several matters of functional cooperation.

The two-day business sessions will be preceded by an opening ceremony later today. Dr. Len Ishmael, Director General of the OECS Secretariat, is expected to address the OECS Heads on the status of the OECS.

The meeting will be convened at the Grenada Grand Beach Hotel