Prime Minister of Barbados the Right Honourable Freundel Stuart arrived in Havana, Cuba on Monday, January 27, 2014 to participate in the Second Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

The Barbados delegation attending the Summit includes Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean and her Permanent Secretary, Charles Burnett; Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister???s Office, Sonja Welch; and the Charg?? d???Affaires at the Embassy of Barbados in Cuba, Donna Forde.

The Prime Minister and his Latin American and Caribbean counterparts are expected to engage in discussions about priority matters impacting the region and approve a CELAC Action Plan for 2014.

The Action Plan will include a number of initiatives consistent with the priorities established at previous Summits along with new areas.

It will identify instruments and activities which, if properly implemented, should lead to concrete results guaranteeing ownership and capacity building in areas such as science, research, innovation and technology; sustainable development; environment; climate change; biodiversity; energy; regional integration and interconnectivity to promote social inclusion and cohesion; migration; education and employment to promote social inclusion and cohesion; the world drug problem; gender; and, investments and entrepreneurship for sustainable development.

Additionally, several special communiqu??s and other declarations will be discussed.

These include communiqu??s on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the Issue of Reparations for Native Genocide and Slavery and the Matter of the Graduation from Low-Income to Middle Income Status: Challenges of Small, Highly ???Indebted Middle-Income Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. These initiatives are being proposed by CARICOM States.

The Presidency Pro Tempore of CELAC will pass from Cuba to Costa Rica for 2014 to be followed by Ecuador, which will assume the responsibility in 2015 until January 2016.

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