7 News Belize

CARICOM and Mexico Make Agreements
posted (October 25, 2017)
The meeting lasted just under two hours - and when it was done about two hours later, the leaders gave a statement to the press about what was resolved. Here's CARICOM Chairman Mitchell.

Rt. Hon. Keith Mitchell - PM Grenada, Chairman of CARICOM
"We discussed also how best to increase the resilience of our countries to the force of climate change and committed to strengthen cooperation within the region and our development partners, international organizations and agencies towards enhancing support for greater adaptation and mitigation measures. Cooperation and de-risking are one of the main areas agreed on in this seventh Mexico-CARICOM meeting. The Technical Cooperation Program in the areas of health, statistics and ICT are also included in line with priorities of CARICOM's strategic plan 2015 to 2019. We want to thank you for this excellent meeting that we've had as brothers and sisters in this region."

The meeting had the attendance of Keith Mitchell - the Prime Minister of Grenada who you just saw, the President of Guyana, David Granger, The Prime Minster of Barbados, Freundel Stuart, Prime Minister Allen Chastanet of St. Lucia, and Prime Minister Keith Rowley of Trinidad and Tobago.

But as we said, President Pena Nieto was the main attraction, and he had a private bi-lateral meeting with Prime Minister Dean Barrow before the summit. PM Barrow bestowed him with the order of Belize after discussing a number of programs between the two neighbors.

The main announcement coming out of that is continuing programs of cooperation. First, President Peña Nieto informed Prime Minister Barrow that Mexico will be supporting the opening of a secondary school in Toledo District modeled after the Escuela Secundaria Tecnica Mexico, which is in San Roman, Corozal. He also announced a three-year programme for partial scholarships to 25 low-income students for studies at Escuela Secundaria Tecnica Mexico. The two leaders also discussed cooperation in maritime security - and, towards that, President Peña Nieto committed to construct two 100 foot long patrol boats, for the Belize Coast Guard. President Peña Nieto also committed to fast track negotiation of the Partial Scope Trade Agreement.

As we said, he left the country about half an hour ago.

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