As we noted, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar is in Belize for the meeting.
She didn't arrived until 4:0 this afternoon because he flight out of Miami was delayed - with a flat tyre, of all things.
But when she arrived, Persad-Bissessar was composed and keen on attending the meeting to give her support for a special entrepreneurial fund - for which she is the patron. She told Jules Vasquez more:..
Hon. Kamla Persad - Bissessar - Prime Minister, Trinidad and Tobago
"There is a very important initiative which I will be launching. I'll speak of it later this evening. It is what is known as the CARILED project. This project is one in which we have received 23 million dollars from CIDA - the Canadian Government, with respect to the development unit. The money is to be utilized in the CARICOM region for young, small entrepreneurs to develop a skills and expertise in those areas. So I think that it is a very important project, and it was useful for us to launch it here, in a CARICOM nation, with your own prime minister. I was very happy to meet with him, because in Trinidad and Tobago, we are leading an initiative where we want to adopt the Caribbean Court of Justice as our final court of appeal for criminal matters. So the gradual session to that particular jurisdiction may require an amendment to the CARICOM Treaty. And your honorable prime minister leads a portfolio area in terms of justice matters. So, of course, consultation with him, and certainly to seek the support of Belize, should it be, that we need, the treaty could possibly be amended. We are hosting a CARICOM heads meeting in Barbados on next Sunday and Monday, but regrettably, your honorable prime minister will not be there. So it was most opportune that I could have met him here in person, whilst taking advantage of the local government forum, the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, to seek his support and his views on this matter."
The Caribbean Court of Justice is headquartered in Port of Spain Trinidad, yet for years the Government of Trinidad has resisted requests to make the court its final Court of Appeal. Persad-Bissessar's government plans to make it the final court for Criminal matters, while the Government of Jamaica is passing legislation to make it the final court in all matters.
Barbados, Guyana and Belize were the first to join the court.
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