DEV/2262

MINISTERIAL CONSULTATION ON CAPACITY-BUILDING FOR CARIBBEAN STATES

ROME, 3 October (DESA) -- The Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration, in cooperation with the Italo-Latin American Institute, organized in Rome on 2 and 3 October a ministerial consultation on capacity-building for Caribbean States, an event sponsored by the Government of Italy.

This ministerial consultation is a follow-up activity to the workshop on capacity-building for Caribbean States in public administration, governance and regional cooperation convened in Port of Spain in May, also sponsored by the Italian Government. It provided a forum to examine best practices and exchange innovative experiences among small States in the area of governance, public administration and capacity-building.

Ministries of foreign affairs, public administration and other high-level officials from 14 countries -- Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Haiti, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago -- attended this meeting, as did international organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme and IBD.

The consultation was opened on Monday by Franco Danieli, Italian Under- Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and keynote speakers for the morning session included Wade Mark, Minister of Public Administration of Trinidad and Tobago, Ludovico Incisa di Camerana, Secretary General of the Italo-Latin American Institute, Guido Bertucci, Director of the Division for Public Economics and Public Administration of DESA, Carla Barnett, Deputy Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and P.I. Gomez, Executive Director of the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration.

Lamberto Dini, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy, welcomed delegates in the afternoon session. The Minister stressed the importance that Italy attributes to the social, economic and sustainable development of the countries in the Caribbean region.

He welcomed the initiative of DESA and the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration to further identify the capacity-building needs of the region and expressed the interest of the Italian Government in supporting the follow-up action emerging from this consultation.

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Finally, he invited the participants to the forthcoming Third Global Forum on e-government issues, which will be held in Naples in March 2001, and expressed to the participants his wish to meet with them again on that occasion.

The ministerial consultation ended today with the adoption of the final document containing a specific agenda for action, including the following directions:

-- Concerted actions to restructure and modernize the public sector with a view to promoting a new culture based on performance, customer service and results;

-- Improvement of the financial sector and of economic governance systems;

-- Human resources management and development;

-- Greater access to and better utilization and management of information technology in order to take advantage of global opportunities and to provide a higher quality of services;

-- Strengthening their capacity to negotiate in the multilateral and bilateral context;

-- Reinforcing the mechanisms for regional integration at the cultural, economic and management levels;

-- Creation of mechanisms to develop integrated policy planning and to reconfigure the management structures and apparatus;

-- Enhancement of the partnership between the public and the private sectors and specific initiatives to foster entrepreneurship and investment;

-- Improving access to information, best practices and international networks in the above areas.

Delegates welcomed the offer of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy to support implementation of this agenda through his own initiatives and those of the European Union, and requested that DESA and the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration actively pursue specific programmes and projects in furtherance of the above objectives.

In addition, the participants noted that a memorandum of understanding was being formulated between the Italo-Latin American Institute and the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration to pursue collaborative programme and project activities. They also took note of the important role that the DESA/State of Bahia South-South Centre on innovation in public administration could play in that area.

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United Nations