From Presna Latina

Port-au-Prince, Jan 18 (Prensa Latina) Everything is ready today for the preparatory session of the 21st Ordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), which will open on Tuesday in the Haitian city of Petion Ville.

On Monday, top officials from the ACS member states will put the finishing touches on the program of tomorrow’s ministerial meeting, which has a tight agenda that will begin with a Report on the organization’s activities during the period and will continue with a comprehensive dialogue on sustainability in the Caribbean Sea.

The meeting will also analyze the conclusions and recommendations from the 1st Symposium of the Sea Caribbean Sea’s Commission, held on November 23-24, 2015, in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

The ministers and heads of delegations will make joint decisions to continue strengthening the protection and preservation of the Caribbean Sea from the consequences of climate change.

Of special importance will be the moment when Haitian Foreign and Cult Minister Lener Renauld will hand over the pro tempore presidency of the ACS to Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.

Cuba has repeated its commitment to the ACS and that it will work to strengthen unity, integration and development of the Caribbean region, adding that the sustainability of the Caribbean Sea is expected to be a very important issue in the upcoming meetings.

Climate change will have a sensitive impact on the region’s coastal zones and will influence the economy and subsistence of many vulnerable and small insular states that are members of the association.

Cuba, which grants top priority to the Caribbean through its commercial and cooperation ties in education, healthcare and infrastructure development, will put its scientific wealth at the service of the fight to preserve environmental integrity.

The ministerial meeting will also analyze a proposal from the Cuban delegation to hold the 7th Summit of Heads of State and/or Government of the ACS in the first semester of 2016.

The agenda also includes the election of the sixth ACS secretary general, who will replace the Colombian intellectual Alfonso Múnera. The post is expected to go to an outstanding figure from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

On Tuesday, decisions will be made to appoint the Governing Boards of the Council of Minister and the Special Committees on the Development of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations, Transportation and Sustainable Development.

The governing boards on the Reduction of Risks of Disasters, and the Budget and Administration, as well as the Council of National Representatives of the Special Fund for the 2016-2017 period, will be appointed as well.

The ACS is the organization for consultation, cooperation and joint action in the fields of commerce, transportation, sustainable tourism and natural disasters in the Great Caribbean

Its members are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.

The associated members are Aruba, Curacao, French Guyana, Saint Bartholomew, Guadeloupe, Bonaire, Saba and Saint Eustatius, Martinique, Saint Maarten, and Turks and Caicos Islands.

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