ACS & Montserrat Discuss Membership & Focal Areas

Secretary General Rodolfo Sabonge and Premier of Montserrat Easton Taylor-Farrell have met to discuss Montserrat becoming an Associate Member of the Association of Caribbean States. The ACS has been engaging Montserrat, a British overseas territory to enter the Association as an Associate Member.

SG Sabonge said noted that the meeting with Montserrat comes at a good time as the Association designs its work plan for the next few years emerging from the global health and livelihood crisis. “We are engaging in a very challenging time. We had a Ministerial Meeting a few weeks ago and we are now planning to have our first Executive Board Meeting and are planning to engage our Coordination Mechanism to start drafting the new tree-year Plan of Action – to help recovery from COVID and also to implement the Sustainable Development Goals that we need to implement in all our projects and programmes.”

Premier Taylor-Farrell pointed out that Montserrat, as the rest of the region faces natural hazards in the form of volcanoes and intense hurricanes, but noted that the pandemic has created an additional challenge. “I think your planned programmes are very much in line with our agenda and especially in light of COVID, the tourism sector is one of the hardest hit sectors, as you know international travel has come to a halt and those people depending on tourism have suffered tremendously. We are open and certainly do not object to Associate Member status. We want to play a very active role in the ACS in the months and years to come as we move forward into the future.”