President Bharrat Jagdeo has been named to a committee within Caricom which will review proposals on regional governance ahead of a key meeting in September.

The issue of governance within Caricom was deliberated on at length during the summit with regional leaders and it was agreed that the committee with the assistance of a technical working group would conduct a review of the proposals on the table with regard to the issue.

The Caricom Com-muniqué, which was issued at the conclusion of the 31st Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Jamaica, referred to governance as a critical issue within the community.

It was noted that the leaders agreed to appoint a committee comprising the Bureau of the Conference – the incumbent Chairman, the Prime Minister of Jamaica; incoming Chairman, the Prime Minister of Grenada; and the outgoing Chairman of the Conference, the Prime Minister of Dominica.

President Jagdeo was added to the committee in addition to the Prime Ministers of St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.

A special Meeting of Heads of Government on the issue of governance is scheduled for late September, and the results of those deliberations would be presented to the Intersessional Meeting in February 2011.
Since the historic Caricom Rose Hall Declaration on Mature Regionalism and Regional Governance in the same Jamaica in July, 2003 progress on developing governance in the region has advanced very slowly as member states balk at surrendering authority to any supra-national body.