| Tony Blair calls major conference on Caribbean Investment in London |
| SC Admin |
10/27/2006
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Associations , Economy, Trade & Investment
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Conference to be chaired by Lord Triesman
London --- 26 Oct. 2006 ---- The event entitled ‘Transforming the Caribbean economy - new avenues for investment’
will take place at Lancaster House in London. It will explore how
within two decades the Caribbean economy is likely to change
dramatically as preference ends and the region comes to be dominated by
the services sector, tourism and allied industries, manufacturing and a
new and better integrated agricultural economy.
The conference
will aim to encourage a revolution in thinking about the region’s
future investment and the role and interrelationship between the public
and private sectors.
The one-day invitation-only conference
which is being organized by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with
the support of the Caribbean Council is aimed at the international
investment community. It takes place at the initiative of the British
Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Tony Blair MP, who together with the Prime
Minister of Barbados, the Rt Hon Owen Arthur MP, intend being present
at the conference.
The conference will:
- Provide a vision of the new Caribbean economy
- Establish
the ways in which the Caribbean can make itself more attractive to
investment using expertise from both the public and private sectors
- Identify sources of finance for investment
- Consider in working sessions the opportunities for investment
- Consider opportunities for public private partnerships
- Enable
Caribbean Governments and industries to showcase new investment
opportunities in which multilateral support might be used alongside
private equity
The event is structured in a manner that will enable all participants
to fully debate issues. Speakers will be limited to presentations of no
more than ten minutes in order to enable the session’s participants to
debate the issues under consideration involving all participants.
In
the afternoon the conference will divide in to three parallel sessions,
looking in detail at the specific opportunities that exist in the
Caribbean in services, agriculture and tourism.
A further panel
led interactive session at the end of the conference will pick up on
issues raised during the day and agree on future action before a
closing plenary looks at where the region might be in twenty years time.
The conference will be chaired by Lord Triesman,
the British Minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office responsible
for relations with the Caribbean. Other British Ministers will also
participate. Over thirty high level public and private sector speakers
from the Caribbean, the UK, Continental Europe, Brazil and elsewhere
will participate in the event.
Among those due to address the
conference are the Rt Hon Tony Blair; the Rt Hon Owen Arthur, the Prime
Minister of Barbados; the President of Guyana, the Hon Bharrat Jagdeo,
plus leading members of the financial community in London and the
Caribbean, including the Chairman of Sagicor, Mr Arthur Bethell. Other
Caribbean government leaders including the Prime Minister of Belize,
the Hon Said Musa will be present along with key figures from the
Caribbean private Sector.
The conference, which is by invitation
only, is aimed at senior decision-makers in the international business
community and the wide range of intermediaries who inform investment
decisions. Numbers of those participating in the plenary sessions are
limited to 200 with invitations extended to a small number of
additional participants to attend the working sessions.
The
conference which is being facilitated by the British Government, is
being delivered by the Caribbean Council working with the Caribbean
Association of Industry and Commerce, the Caribbean Hotel Association
and other public and private sector organisations from the Caribbean
Region.
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