Forty-second OECS Authority meeting opens in Anguilla

OECS Heads

by Sarrah Hadeed
Caribbean Net News Correspondent on assignment
E-mail: sarrahhadeed@yahoo.com 

Monday,  November 7, 2005

THE VALLEY, Anguilla: The working sessions of the 42nd Meeting of the Heads of Government of the 9-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) opens Monday on the tiny British dependency of Anguilla following the official opening ceremony on Sunday, at which the organisation's Chairman, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla's Chief Minister Osborne Fleming and the Secretary General of the OECS, Dr. Len Ishmael delivered addresses.

The OECS comprises host country Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda; British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

According to a press statement coming from the organisation's media chief, Kendol Morgan, during the two-day meeting attempts will be made to further deepen economic integration in the sub-region. 

Morgan also pointed out that "the Heads will discuss a draft OECS Economic Union Treaty which, when adopted, will replace the existing Treaty of Basseterre, and speak more directly to the creation of an Economic Union in the OECS sub-region. 

They will discuss proposals for reform of the Magistrates Courts in the sub-region; the role and functions of Directors of Public Prosecution; and the OECS Legal and Judicial Affairs Commission."

A presentation will also be made to the Heads pointing out the benefits to be gained by the OECS's yachting sector from a recent joint participation in the Grand Pavois Boat show in La Rochelle, France. 

The Pavois Boat Show which was held under the theme, ‘Many Islands One Sea’ is reported to have provided "new business opportunities for marinas, yacht charter companies, and the manufacturers and suppliers of goods and services."

The Heads will also get what Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas of St. Kitts and Nevis called a very important update on the progress made by the OECS Regional Coordinating Mechanism for HIV/AIDS. A report from the United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF), has revealed that some 1.1 million children across the Caribbean region are orphans and this is due to the fact that many have lost their parents due to the dreaded disease HIV/AIDS. 

Recently, Dr. Denzil Douglas, the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) point man on health matters, issued a call for the children of the Caribbean to be protected from the scourge of HIV/AIDS and a special report from the Caribbean Commission on Health and Development (CCHD), indicated that there are approximately half a million people living with HIV/AIDS in the wider Caribbean and 20 percent of these live in CARICOM member countries. 

The report went on to state that, given the current rate of infection, the figure is projected to be 672,000 come the close of 2009, and during the next five years, AIDS will kill a quarter of a million people in the Caribbean if the epidemic continues unchecked, the frightening report said. 

Also down for discussion is the OECS Regional Prison Service, which is considering options for alternative non-custodial sentencing in the sub-region; the transition process from sugar in St. Kitts-Nevis; and the recent developments in the Windward Islands banana industry.

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