ACS keeps watchful eye on tourism
The thrust of the travel industry is high on the working agenda of experts and officials from the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) gathered this week in Panama City on the eve of the Ninth Meeting of the ACS Council of Ministers, an event that will pave the way for the oncoming regional summit in February.
The Chagre Hall in Panama City’s Caesar Park Hotel is hosting the discussions of diplomats in charge of checking up on the ACS’s latest moves before regional Ministers of Foreign Affairs convene on Nov. 27.
The need to strengthen the Caribbean’s collective capabilities in order to achieve sustainable development, the promotion of both trade and investments, coupled with a rational tapping of the region’s tourism resources for the benefit of the people are listed as some of ACS’s top priorities.
Silvestre A. Hutchinson, chief of the Office of Bilateral Economic Relations in Panama’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, indicated all attendants to this meeting –clustering the organization’s 25 full member states and 11 associated representations- will hold sessions on Monday and Tuesday morning before the arrival of chancellors.
Furthermore, the 14th Meeting of the Council of National Representatives from the ACS Special Forum will get together on the 24th with a view to fill in all informational blanks prior to the ministerial powwow, scheduled for Nov. 27 at the Bolivar Palace in the old part of town.
During the previous session, fancy Las Islas Hall at the Panamanian lodging will provide the perfect setting for bilateral exchanges among the region’s Ministers of Foreign Affairs.
”We expect the attendance of some observing countries, like Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Canada, the Netherlands, Great Britain, India, Ecuador and Italy,” the high-ranking official averred.
Mr. Hutchinson explained the debates will help map out the strategy of the forum, founded on July 24, 1994 in Cartagena de Indias, as the Fourth Summit of Heads of State and Government, scheduled for Panama City on Feb. 13 and 14 next year, closes in.
ACS full member states are Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominique, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Granada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts & Nevis, Santa Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Surinam, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela.
The associated members are Anguila, Britsh Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Monserrat, Puerto Rico, Turks & Caicos, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba (represented by the Netherlands), France on behalf of Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guyana, plus Bermudas.
