(CARICOM) The Thirty-Fourth Meeting of the Community Council of Ministers of the Caribbean Community will deliberate on the third draft of the CARICOM Five-Year Strategic Plan when the Council meets on Thursday 22 May at the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown Guyana.
The two-day meeting which concludes on Friday 23 May, will be held under the Chairmanship of Senator, the Honourable Camillo Gonsalves, Minister of Foreign Affairs, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
A Summary outline of the Strategic Framework of the Plan was tabled at the Twenty-Fifth Inter-Sessional Meeting held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in March. Following the Inter-Sessional Meeting, a revised full draft of the Plan was prepared and considered by the Change Drivers and Community Institutions in early April. On the basis of comments provided, a further iteration was generated and circulated to the Change Drivers on 13 May 2014.
A draft based on the aforementioned changes has now been prepared and will be deliberated on by the Ministers during the meeting of the Community Council. It is expected that at the end of the meeting a final draft of the Five-Year Strategic Plan for the Community will be ready to be tabled for consideration by the CARICOM Heads of Government with a view to adoption at their thirty-fifth regular meeting in Antigua and Barbuda on 1-4 July 2014.
The Strategic Plan identifies six integrated Strategic Priorities for the Community over the five-year period 2015-2019 and key areas of interventions for each. The six (6) integrated strategic priorities are: building Economic Resilience; Social Resilience; Environmental Resilience; Technological Resilience; Strengthening the CARICOM Identity and Spirit of Community; and Strengthening Community Governance. Two (2) enabling priorities have also been identified. These are coordinated foreign policy and research, development and innovation.
A key issue for attention is the need to identify and seek agreement from Heads of Government on a very narrow range of priorities to be accorded top priority attention for implementation over the five-year period.
The Community Council of Ministers will also discuss other matters in relation to the provisional agenda for the Thirty-Fifth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community.
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