Prime Minister Golding for Miami Conference on the Caribbean Basin

Prime Minister, Hon Bruce Golding, leaves the island tomorrow afternoon to attend the 31st annual Miami conference on the Caribbean Basin which will run from December 3-5. Mr Golding has been invited to present Jamaica’s vision and his administration’s plans to address globalisation and competitiveness, at the plenary dinner scheduled for tomorrow evening at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Miami, Florida.
The Conference is being put on by the Caribbean Central America Action (CCAA), a private independent organisation whose mission is centred on promoting private sector-led sustainable economic development in the Caribbean Basin Initiative beneficiary countries.
In its invitation to Prime Minister Golding, the CCAA noted that this year’s conference will look critically at the district regions of Central America and the Caribbean and the development and investment opportunities that exist for these economies. The conference is being presented under the theme ‘A region poised for growth’.
The areas to be focussed on over the three days will be energy; the impact of crime and security on trade and investment; the results of the integration efforts on the region; the future of the tourism industry in the Caribbean and the apparel industry in Central America as economic drivers; and the relationships of these countries with their neighbours to the south as well as traditional partners such as the United States, Europe and Canada.
The conference will also address the role of the non-traditional partners such as India and China and the role of the small and mid-sized business community in driving economic growth and regional competitiveness.
The Miami conference on the Caribbean Basin remains the only conference that focuses attention solely on the smaller economies of the Caribbean and Central America. The conference combines key addresses from relevant regional Heads of State and leading private sector leaders with round table discussions on telecommunications, energy, financial services, disaster mitigation, corporate social responsibility and transportation.
Previous conferences have been addressed by Heads of State from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador.