Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, November 28, 1997

1. Articles VIII, item 3 and IX, item (a) of the Convention Establishing the Association;
2. Agreement No. 7/95 approved by the Ministerial Council at its meeting of December 1, 1995 in Guatemala City, Guatemala;

1. To approve the Work Programmes of the Special Committees, which form the basis for implementing the aims and objectives of the Association, identified in the Convention and the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action approved by the Heads of State and Government in Port of Spain in August 1995 (Appendix 1).
2. To elevate the Technical Group on Transportation to the category of Special Committee, which will be responsible, inter alia, for those functions specified in Chapter V of this Agreement.
3. To note the Reports submitted by the Chairpersons of the Special Committees on the main activities of the Work Programmes.
4. To ensure continuity in activities which have not yet been completed and which were begun in accordance with the Work Programmes approved by the Ministerial Council in Agreements Nos. 1/95 and 3/96.
5. To ensure coordination between the Executive Board of each Special Committee and the Secretariat for follow-up and implementation of the Work Programmes, in accordance with the mechanisms adopted by the Ministerial Council.
6. To instruct the Second Intersessional Preparatory Meeting to assess the implementation of the Work Programmes in 1998, and to make recommendations to the Special Committees and the Secretariat, regarding the proper implementation of the Work Programmes.
7. To ensure continuity in the medium and long terms for the Work Programmes, as stipulated in Agreement No. 3/96, item 5.
8. To instruct the Special Committees and the Secretariat to give priority to the following proposals within the framework of activities conducted under the Work Programmes:

1. To note the Proposal for an Environmental Strategy for the Caribbean recommended by the Joint Meeting of the Special Committee on the Protection and Conservation of the Environment and the Caribbean Sea and the Special Committee on Natural Resources, which will orient the Work Programmes of these Committees over the next five years.

3. To ensure that the Special Committees on Natural Resources and on the Protection and Conservation of the Environment and the Caribbean Sea continue to meet simultaneously at the same venue and on the same date.
4. To approve the ACS Regional Co-operation Mechanism for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Disasters, prepared by the Special Group on Natural Disasters at its Second Meeting, held in Panama, in October 1997, in fulfilment of the mandate of the Intersessional Meeting held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and submitted and recommended to the Council by the Special Committee on the Protection and Conservation of the Environment and the Caribbean Sea.
5. To urge the Members of the Association to provide political support through the Special Committee on the Protection and Conservation of the Environment and the Caribbean Sea for integrated disaster management in the region.
6. To encourage those international organisations whose objective is natural and/or environmental disaster prevention and monitoring, in particular the Regional Disaster Information Centre in Latin America (CRID), to disseminate and distribute to all Members of the Association information on disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response, as well as on the rehabilitation and rebuilding of communities affected by disasters.

1. To instruct the Executive Board of the Special Committee on Science, Technology, Education, Health and Culture to establish and convene, in coordination with the Secretariat, during the first quarter of 1998, a Working Group open to all Members of the Association, which will be responsible, inter alia, for the following:

1. Preparation of a Diagnostic Study for designing a Co-operation Network.
2. The Diagnostic Study prepared by the Working Group will be based in the first instance on the results of consultations between the Secretariat and the Members of the Association, and the resulting amendments to the design of the Network for Co-operation in Science and Technology in areas of common interest (CARICYT), submitted by Cuba at the Second Meeting of the Special Committee on Science, Technology, Education, Health and Culture.
3. Preparation of an inventory of existing networks involving the Member States and the areas of coverage. This inventory will form an integral part of the Diagnostic Study to be submitted by the Working Group.
4. The Working Group will place emphasis, inter alia, on the following areas:

• Renewable Sources of Energy
• Biotechnology
• Ocean Sciences
• Development and/or transfer of technologies compatible with the preservation of the eco-system
• Tourism
• Waste Management
• Post-Harvest Technology
• Intellectual Property
• Standardisation, Metrology and System of Accreditation for Quality Assurance
• Efficient and sustainable use of Natural Resources.

1. The Working Group’s efforts will be coordinated by an Executive Board comprising representatives of the Members of the Executive Board of the Special Committee on Science, Technology, Education, Health and Culture, and will report on its progress and conclusions to that Committee.

1. To convene in Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia, during the first half of 1998, a meeting of regional trade and investment promotion bodies. In this respect, the Ministerial Council emphasised the need to:

1. Include on the Agenda of this meeting an opportunity to study co-operation mechanisms among these trade and investment promotion bodies.
2. Make use of the next meeting of trade and investment promotion bodies of ACS Members, to formulate recommendations regarding the identification of the priorities and working guidelines for the Committee in the area of promoting trade and investment in the countries of the region.

1. To intensify efforts to identify barriers to intra-regional trade and investment existing in each country, avoiding duplication of efforts. In this respect, there should be conducted an analysis of tariff and non-tariff barriers, as well as others relating to services (transportation, payment mechanisms, insurance, etc.) and those relating to the facilitation of business. The study should make specific recommendations on the means of overcoming these obstacles.
2. To prepare an inventory of existing regional public and private sector financing and payment mechanisms in the area of trade, to which importers and exporters of the member countries might have access in order to facilitate their trade transactions.

5. To ensure adequate follow-up to ongoing negotiations in the area of economic integration among the countries of the region.

1. To approve as the Work Programme of the Special Committee on Transportation, that presented by the Technical Group on Transportation.
2. To declare as a high priority in 1998 the consolidation of an Action Programme oriented towards "Uniting the Caribbean Region by Air and Sea".
3. Basic Principles which should serve as a framework for the activities to be developed in the area of transportation:

i. To elaborate programmes and projects to promote the development of transportation to contribute to the social and economic expansion of the ACS States, Countries and Territories.

ii. To stimulate in a permanent and broad manner, the regional co-operation mechanisms in transportation matters, with the aim of adapting existing infrastructure to the new realities and challenges posed by the regional and international integration processes.

4. Objectives and Characteristics of the Activities:

1. The frame of reference that will orient and order the work of the Special Committee on Transportation will include the areas of human resource training, science and technology, trade, and permanent information exchange.
2. The projects and activities will be developed in a gradual manner, in order to ensure the possibilities of multiple regional destinations within the framework of existing agreements and relations among the ACS States, Countries and Territories.

1. Areas that should be incorporated into the Projects and Activities:

1. To approve the preliminary version of the Agreement for the creation of the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Caribbean.
2. To reiterate the political will of the members of the Association to promote the creation of the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Caribbean.
3. To instruct the Special Committee on Tourism to continue activities begun, adopting the proposal of the "Recommendations for a Strategy for the Establishment of a Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Caribbean", leading to the final version of the Agreement. This document will be submitted for the consideration of the Fourth Meeting of the Ministerial Council and will be accompanied by a calendar and specific programmes of implementation.