by B. Roach
(See correction on this story below)
Montserrat’s Premier the Hon. Reuben T. Meade hosted on Friday, April 27, 2012 a four-person delegation from the Regional Council of Guadeloupe, lead by Mrs. Thérèse Marianne-Pepin, Chairman of the Cooperation Commission at the Regional Council.
Premier Reuben T. Meade presents gift to Mrs. Therese Marianne-Pepin
Mrs. Thérèse Marianne-Pepin confirmed in a press briefing at the end of the day before returning to neighbouring Guadeloupe that the mission was to have discussions that will lead us to agreement with Montserrat as they look at ways to develop closer collaboration and also with other nations in the Caribbean. To that end, the delegation is presently conducting missions into several islands including the British Virgin Islands and Montserrat.
Mr. Gerard Richard
Earlier, officials from the Premier’s office had indicated that the objectives of the mission were, to provide an in-country forum for Guadeloupe and Montserrat to discuss and decide on broad areas of collaboration for each country’s mutual benefit and development; and, to discuss Guadeloupe’s intention of becoming Associate Members of OECS and CARICOM and ways in which Guadeloupe can cooperate in that regard, while learning from Montserrat their experience of membership status within these entities.
Mrs. Jessica Julan-Aubourg accepts gift from Mrs. Beverley Mendes
Premier Meade at the end of the briefing, promised that he will be sharing the information from Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) meeting, “which we’ll have in Curacao next week, of which Guadeloupe is not a part so that we can bring them along…”
The delegation head reported that they had looked at several areas, as this meeting was a follow from one that was held in 2009. “We have quite a number of subjects of areas that we can corporate on, we look at the areas that are more common areas between us, (such as) health, education, fisheries, agriculture…,” adding that they also looked at areas that “will affect our future development such as our participation in the OECS, that Montserrat can be our big brother…”
Ms. Laurence Marianne
She agreed that regarding the wider region and Caribbean, CARICOM, “It’s been quite a while since we’ve wanted that level of participation in regional bodies,” saying, “you might say the time is right now…and even on a level of France, we have the possibility now to be able to do such.”
Mrs. Marianne-Pepin spoke of geothermal energy and said, “It is very important to us,” that they in fact are currently collaborating with Dominica on such a project and, “should that project be successful Dominica would be self-sufficient in the production and dissemination of Geothermal energy.”
She promoted, “We would like that Montserrat participates,” adding they are, “very interested ourselves in supporting and being part of that initiative.”
The Full Guadeloupe delegation included, Mrs Jessica Julan-Aubourg, Head of Fisheries Division within Rural, Agriculture and Fisheries Directorate; Mr. Gerard Richard, Head of Archaeological Division within Culture Directorate; Laurence Marianne, Head of Cooperation Division within EU and Cooperation Affairs Directorate; and Mrs. Lydia Barfleur, Director of the Franco-Caribbean Institute (ICFC). The Montserrat delegation included Cabinet Secretary Mrs. Angela Greenaway, Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Beverley Mendes and Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Premier Mr. Colin Fergus.
During the day’s visit the Guadeloupeans paid a courtesy call on His Excellency the Governor Adrian Davis. They met and spoke speak with senior officials from the government on matters relating to matters already mentioned as well as culture, air and sea travel, and disaster response. On the travel matter, Mrs. Pepin agreed, “I think tourism should be part of the economic development of all the islands in the Caribbean, I think it should lead between Montserrat and Guadalupe because we are close.”
Mrs. Marianne-Pepin also brought gifts
Premier Meade expressed his excitement that Montserrat can indeed play big brother to its cousin and neighbours since, “We’re both European Union citizens and therefore we have to look at ways of collaborating with our next door neighbors and our cousins, in relation to what can happen among ourselves. Not only in terms of what we can get from them but in terms of what we can share with them as well.”
He noted that there are also included some trade elements. “For example Guadeloupe is interested in our sand for construction purposes so we are looking at reviving that, as well in terms of the access issues in term of air and sea access…”
He spoke to Guadeloupe being possibly an associate member of the OECS, promising that government of Montserrat will provide all the technical assistance which is possible to get them through that process.
The media at the end an exchange of gifts between the government and the delegations.
Correction: This story as published earlier includes the name and even named Mrs. Lydia Barfleur in one of the photographs. That lady was not part of the delegation that visited Montserrat. Her name did appear in the release announcing the mission. We apologise sincerely for the error.
