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PORT OF SPAIN (24.5.2002) - Thanks to a US$ 128,000.00 grant from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), citizens of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) could soon benefit from an Association of Caribbean States (ACS) Language Training Pilot Project. The pilot project, developed by the ACS Secretariat in collaboration with the OECS Secretariat, is an Intensive Immersion Language Training programme (in French and Spanish) for key-personnel dealing with regional co-operation matters in the OECS countries.

These include but are not limited to government officials, businesspeople and foreign-language teachers from Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Courses will take place in language training institutions located in Spanish and French-speaking ACS Member Countries.

"This represents the first phase of a future wider-scale ACS Language Training Project in English, French and Spanish, the development of which corresponds to the mandate stated in the Plan of Action adopted by the 3rd ACS Summit of Heads of State and/or Government, held on December 11-12, 2001 in Margarita Island, Venezuela," said ACS Secretary General Professor Norman Girvan. "In the Greater Caribbean, there is tremendous need for us to understand each other's languages and we are pleased to be taking this first, very significant step."

The Grant Agreement between the ACS, the CDB and the OECS, was signed on May 15, 2002 during the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the CDB in the Cayman Islands. It was signed by CDB President Compton Borne (seated second from right), ACS Secretary General Professor Norman Girvan (seated second from left) and OECS Director General George Goodwin (seated first from right). The Venezuelan government, which chairs the ACS Special Fund, the entity responsible for resource mobilisation, was also represented at the signing ceremony by Dr. Oscar Hernandez, Director General of Economic and International Cooperation (seated first from left), and Ambassador Alejandro Perera, Acting Director for Cooperation with the Caribbean and Central America (left standing). Projects and Resource Mobilization Adviser to the ACS Secretary General Jean-Yves Lacascade also attended the meeting.

He informed that as a result of the ACS Special Fund activity in resource mobilization, the CDB will act as a co-financing institution in this functional regional cooperation project, along with the Regional Councils of Guadeloupe and Martinique, the French Regional Cooperation Fund and the governments of Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela.

About the ACS
The Association of Caribbean States is an organisation for consultation, cooperation and concerted action in trade, transport, sustainable tourism and natural disasters. The ACS Member States are Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela. Its Associate Members are Aruba, France on behalf of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique, and the Netherlands Antilles.

For further Information, please contact:
Aleem Khan
Communications Officer
Association of Caribbean States
akhan@acs-aec.org
Tel: 1-868-622-9575
Fax: 1-868-622-1653