Secretary-General of CARICOM, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and the Foreign Minister of Haiti, Laurent Lamothe on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Under-standing (MOU) identifying a number of areas in which CARICOM can assist the member state.
Among the areas agreed upon are capacity building in government agencies for investment; technical assistance in education, agriculture, public health, transportation, tourism and youth exchange initiatives, the CARICOM Secretariat at Turkeyen said in a press release.
The signing of the MOU came at the end of the two-day Mission to Haiti by the Bureau of Heads of Government of CARICOM led by Chairman Desi Bouterse, President of Suriname. Dr Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Phillip Pierre, Deputy Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, representing his Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony and Secretary-General LaRocque were the other members of the Bureau on the mission.
The special representative of the Heads of Government on Haiti, PJ Patterson was also a member of the delegation.
The delegation met with Michel Martelly, President of Haiti and there was agreement that the support of CARICOM was of vital importance for Haiti, and for the community itself, the release noted.
At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, President Bouterse said the visit had been most rewarding as the Bureau had heard from the President, the cabinet, the private sector, and parliament how they would wish CARICOM to work with them in the rebuilding and further development of the country.
He urged the Haitian business community to take better advantage of the agreement that allows some products to enter the rest of CARICOM duty free for a three- year period which began last year.
The CARICOM Chairman also assured the private sector that the Bureau would encourage those member states who had not yet done so to implement the decision of the Heads of Government to allow entry for those business persons with visas from the United States, Canada and the Schengen area entry into their state.
The Schengen area is made of 25 European countries and is an area of free movement of persons.
