Tonight, CARICOM heads of government have safely arrived in Belize and are settling into the San Pedro's Grand Caribe resort.
And tomorrow the work begins the strategic planning, lengthy negotiations, and making of commitments that will determine the outcomes of this Caricom heads of government intersessional.
We'll be bringing you the updates all week but tonight we show you how it all started with the last of the arrivals. Cherisse Halsall has more:
It was just moments ago that Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Anor Mottley made her official entrance to the 33rd Caricom Heads of Government intersessional meeting.
And while hers is the arrival that we'd awaited all day, we also saw the arrival of a who's who of Caribbean Heads of Government or their representatives who are in Belize for their first face to meeting in two years.
Dr. Carla Barnett - CARICOM Secretary General
"This is the first face to face meeting that heads will be having since the 2020 meeting because of the impact of the covid pandemic, so there is a desire, there is an expectation that heads sitting around the table are going to be able to discuss a lot of important matters."
And the most important items on the agenda include rebounding from COVID and activating the CARICOM Single market and Economy:
Dr. Carla Barnett - CARICOM Secretary General
"The main items on the agenda that heads will be discussing tomorrow and on Wednesday include the impact of the covid19 pandemic, we are now moving towards focussing on economic recovery. We are going to be talking as well about the Caricom single market and economy and triggering more robust implementation. There is significant impetus for the CSME at this time, because od the impact of the covid pandemic and so we will be looking forward to advancing some of those ideas. We will be talking specifically on about agriculture and agriculture development, food security and nutrition security - will be talking about that. We will be engaging with the social partners as we normally do, the private sector and labour in particular. One of the important things on the agenda will be of course climate change and the preparations that we will be making for COP27, following up on the outcomes of COP26 and we will of course be discussing with our member state Haiti to see how we can help to resolve some of the issues. We expect Prime Minister to be here and finally we are also going to be preparing for the summit with SICA, the Caricom SICA summit will take place on Thursday immediately after our Caricom heads of government meeting and so there is a lot that is on the table for discussion and we are looking forward to having really energetic and productive discussions."
