Latest update December 11th, 2024 1:33 AM
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Ambassador Applewhaite to perform S.G. duties
Sir Edwin Carrington
Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite
Chairman of CARICOM, Bruce Golding, has announced that Deputy Secretary-General, Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite, will act as Secretary-General with effect from 1 January 2011, pending the selection and appointment of a new official.
Secretary-General, Sir Edwin Carrington, is set to step down at the end of this month after 18 years at the helm of the regional body.
The Search Committee, chaired by Barbados Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean, which was established to identify suitable candidates to fill the post of Secretary-General, has submitted a progress report to the Bureau of Heads of Government on November 17th.
According to CARICOM yesterday, Heads of Government have approved the recommendation of the Bureau for the Search Committee to continue its search, review applications and conduct interviews with a view to submitting its recommendations to the Inter-sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government scheduled to be held in Grenada in late February/early March 2011.
“CARICOM Heads of Government further agreed that, in the interim, Ambassador Applewhaite would act as Secretary-General.”
Ambassador Applewhaite, a Barbadian national with vast experience in the diplomatic service, is a former Director of the Centre for International Studies at the Cave Hill Campus of the UWI. She has served as Deputy Secretary-General of CARICOM since 2003.
A number of persons have been tipped for the post of Secretary General, 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.
The 72-year-old Carrington, a Trinidadian, has been heading CARICOM for four consecutive terms now.
Under his watch, CARICOM member states increased from 13 to 15, with Suriname and Haiti joining up. Also formed were regional bodies including the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Caribbean Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), the CARICOM Competition Commission and the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF).
The Secretary General or “S.G.” as he is familiarly referred to, has been recorded as saying he will be writing a book on Haiti when he retires and there will be “no work for six months”.
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.
Sir Edwin will hold his final end-of-year press conference today as the CARICOM’s Secretary-General. Prior to that event, the Secretary-General will deliver opening remarks at the CARICOM/Australia High Level Meeting.
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