Member States comprising the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) are currently in the process of deciding which Caribbean territory will be nominated next to perform the duties of Secretary General from 2016 through 2020.
Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, in a recent interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA) indicated that the ACS has given the member states time to complete the exercise and make known their findings.
“The region has given itself a deadline for the appointment and the consideration of applications and the appointment of candidates, and by the time of the intercessional of the CARICOM Heads of Government they will be discussing a list of candidates.”
By the time the regular meeting of Heads comes around, member states should be in a position to endorse a name and provide it to the ACS, Minister Greenidge explained.
The primary focus of the ACS is to place special attention to promoting the interest of the smaller states in the region. This means that a Secretary General from the Caribbean will be disposed to placing special focus on an area of critical concern to Caribbean member states.
The Current Secretary General, His Excellency Ambassador Alfonso Múnera Cavadía served a fruitful tenure and the group was very appreciative of the energy, enthusiasm and initiative which he demonstrated. He took up the position of Secretary General of the ACS in April 2012 following his election by the Ministerial Council.
A study of the Caribbean Sea and its importance to the existence of Caribbean States was an initiative of Ambassador Cavadía which is of critical concern to member states. This study was part of the agenda widely discussed at the recently concluded 21st Ordinary Meeting of the Ministerial Council of the ACS held in Haiti.
The Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States is elected by the Ministerial Council for a four-year term on the basis of rotation. They are elected from among the principal groupings that comprise the ACS which are CARICOM, Central America G-3 and the Non-Grouped countries.
