(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar will be leaving today on official business to Belize, New York and Barbados, a release from the Office of the Prime Minister said yesterday.
She will return next Tuesday. In her absence Works and Infrastructure Minister Jack Warner will act as Prime Minister.
Her sister and former travel assistant/nurse Vidwatie Newton will not be accompanying her, the Prime Minister’s communications adviser Lisa Ghany confirmed to the Express via email yesterday.
Ghany added that Persad-Bissessar will be accompanied by “different ministers relative for specific meetings” but did not identify the ministers.
In Belize, Persad-Bissessar will participate in two Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) events.
On Wednesday she will launch the Caribbean Local Economic Development (CARILED) Programme, a CA$23.2 million, six-year project funded by the Canadian International Development Association (CIDA). The programme aims to strengthen local governance and to stimulate local economic growth throughout the region, a release from the Office of the Prime Minister stated.
In her address at the Caribbean Investment Forum yesterday at the Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s, Persad-Bissessar said she will be pleased to host the Headquarters of Cariled in Trinidad, as she strongly believes that this initiative will stimulate growth and development in various local socio-economic sectors.
On Thursday, she attends the CLGF Annual Board Meeting; the CLGF had recently nominated her as an honorary patron, alongside Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, United Nations Development Programme Administrator.
From Belize, Persad-Bissessar will head to New York, USA where she will deliver a statement at the UN High-Level Thematic Debate on The State of the World Economy and Finance in 2012 on Friday.
While there, she will also hold bilateral discussions with Executive-Director of UN Women, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet to identify opportunities for further collaboration between Trinidad and Tobago and UN Women.
Also on Friday, Persad-Bissessar has been invited to deliver the keynote address at New York University’s (NYU) Convocation Ceremony for the Graduating Class of 2012 LLM students, as a successful world leader with a strong background in law and a global leadership perspective, in keeping with the international scope of their LLM programme.
She will then head to Barbados for a special Caricom meeting to discuss matters pertaining to the Caribbean Court of Justice on May 20, followed by the second Caricom-Mexico Summit on May 21, before returning home on May 22.
