Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
CARICOM Special Caucus discusses replacement for Carrington
– Suriname puts up nomination
Leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have met to consider a replacement for Secretary General Edwin Carrington who steps down at the end of the year.
Surinamese newspaper, De Ware Tijd reported that Suriname will nominate a candidate for the post.
The newspaper said that the Suriname Government believes there are too few Surinamese who occupy top positions within the regional trade and integration bloc.
Carrington has notified the Heads of Government of CARICOM of his decision to step down from his position, effective December 31, 2010.
There have been rumours of Suriname nominating, Albert Ramdin, who serves as assistant Secretary General of the Organisation of American States.
Edwin Carrington
Mr. Carrington, a national of Trinidad and Tobago, was appointed in 1992 – the sixth Secretary-General of the Community. He succeeded Mr. Roderick Rainford of Jamaica.
“These last 18 years as Secretary-General have been the pinnacle of my public service career. I have, despite the odds, done all I could to help create a viable and secure Community for all.
“It has been a period of important achievements as well as significant disappointments. I leave satisfied and confident however, that the Caribbean Community now has a solid platform on which to continue to build the integration movement,” the Secretary-General said.
Barbados’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senator Maxine McClean is heading a committee to search for Carrington’s successor.
She was expected to provide CARICOM leaders with a shortlist of the names in New York where they all are for the UN General Assembly.
A number of persons have been tipped for the post, including Douglas Saunders, Secretary to the Jamaican cabinet; Irwin La Rocque, the Dominican diplomat; Jamaican Ransford Smith, Deputy Secretary General of the Commonwealth; and Dr. Kusha Haraksingh of Trinidad.
La Rocque is the assistant general secretary for Regional Economic Trade and Integration at the CARICOM Secretariat and Haraksingh, a UWI Lecturer has been chairman of CARICOM’s Competition Commission since its inauguration in 2008.
During his tenure, Carrington oversaw the revision of the Treaty of Chaguaramas and the consequent transition of the Community from a Common Market to a Single Market in 2006. Under his Secretary-Generalship, the platform is also being set for eventual evolution of the Community to include a Single Economy – the framework for which Heads of Government have undertaken to create by 2015. Mr. Carrington’s term has also seen the establishment of a number of key institutions designed to put the integration process on a sound base.
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