Minister for Foreign Affairs, International Business, Trade and Energy, Dr. Vince Henderson said foreign ministers must promote the environment that enables increased opportunities for collaboration, cooperation and strategic partnership.
He was delivering remarks at the opening ceremony of the 27th Meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) held at the State House Conference Center on Thursday.
The meeting will be held from Thursday, May 23 to Friday, May 24, 2024.
“As foreign ministers, we must promote an environment that enables increased opportunities for collaboration, cooperation, and strategic partnerships,” Dr. Henderson said. “Over the next two days, the deliberations will address several critical issues to build a more resilient and thriving community for all.”
He told those visiting that their presence here in Dominica signifies a strong commitment to strengthening the Caribbean region community ties and collaboration, ”and I am appreciative of the fact that so many member-states are here today, with the exception of Haiti.”
Furthermore, he pointed out that during the meeting the council will review important engagements with third states and will be briefed on plans to commemorate the 2024 CARICOM Friendship Year.
“We will also receive details on the schedule for other technical-level engagements this year with Brazil, Canada, India, and Korea which will chart our development cooperation with these states,” Dr. Henderson explained.
He went on to state that the council will continue to reflect on the geopolitical concerns,” directly affecting our sustainable development.”
“We will receive updates on the associate membership applications of several third states in the region and also discuss the implications of enlargement as it relates to observers,” he noted.
Moreover, Dr. Henderson mentioned that the COFCOR will also review upcoming international meetings of significance for the region, “including the Commonwealth Heads of Government and the summit of the future that require our coordinated attention and the development of strong unified positions.”
Meanwhile, he said as the hurricane season approaches, “we continue to remain vigilant, but we must continue to ensure that in our interaction with third states and with international organizations that a very strong statement be made about climate justice and sustainable development.”
“Building resilience as we have found in Dominica, especially after the passage of Hurricane Maria is very expensive,” he stated. “We have found out sometimes it costs three or four times more to build resilience than to simply build a road from one point to another.”
Dr. Henderson indicated that as Dominica’s debt burden increases to build resilience, it is again faced with the threat of another Hurricane season.
Hilarious. If there is 0 enabling environment for locals to thrive you think is foreigners that will want to come here. Businesses cannot even set up an online payment method unless is a money transfer with mobanking, and to do that you must have an NBD account. dominica probably only have 10 ATMs on the island. Gas stations closing at 8pm. you cannot get a decent meal past lunch time. There is 0 turn key production space for any producers or significant sized business to operate from available. Enabling Environment? You people have been killing the country’s enabling environment for the past 20 years and wasting national money. Overnight millionaires talking about enabling environment