Apart from the coherence gained from such an exercise, which would ultimately impact on the advancement of the organisation’s overarching objectives, the encounter is geared towards identifying and maximising existing synergies in the activities of the Committees, thereby increasing the efficient and effective development of the Association’s programmes to improve the lives of the citizens of its Member States.

The ACS held a series of these coordination meetings in 2003, as a result of which the Special Committees cooperated on the realisation of several activities, namely:
- The Forum of Airline and Tourism Executives for the Promotion of Multi-destination Tourism in the Greater Caribbean, which was held in Martinique in November 2005 and facilitated dialogue and concerted action in air services for trade and tourism;
- The Business Forum of the Greater Caribbean
- The Integrated Information System of the Greater Caribbean   

Some areas in which future collaboration has already been identified include:
- The Business Forum of the Greater Caribbean, this time emphasising topics related to sustainable tourism and transport, and increasing business meetings with carriers and tourism entrepreneurs;
- The Integrated Information System of the Greater Caribbean: completing the various modules of the system, including the statistics gleaned from the Feasibility Study on the creation of a Regional Post-Disaster Fund for ACS Member Countries”, then combining the separate databases from the focal areas into a single and uniform system;
- The creation of a Tourist Safety Network, as a subset of the issue of Regional Security in the Greater Caribbean, seeking points of cooperation;
- The establishment of the Virtual Market of the Greater Caribbean is pending Ministerial approval, but when endorsed, can provide a platform for service providers in the Sustainable Tourism and Transport fields to do business;
- Support for project management and resource mobilisation, working closely with the International Cooperation Focal Points of the ACS to increase the possibilities for cooperation from organisations and donor countries to finance the projects emanating from the Special Committees.

The Chairmen will present their findings and recommendations to the 10th Intersessional Meeting of the ACS which will convene on September 7 and 8, 2006, at the Cascadia Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Photo 1: From left to right - ACS Secretary General, Dr. Rubén Silié; H.E. Luis Fernando Andrade, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala and Dr. Mauricio Gómez Lacayo, Vice Minister of Economic Relations and Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua

About the ACS

The Association of Caribbean States is the organization for consultation, cooperation and concerted action in trade, transport, sustainable tourism and natural disasters in the Greater Caribbean. Its Member States are Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela. Its Associate Members are Aruba , France on behalf of French Guiana , Guadeloupe , and Martinique , and the Netherlands Antilles .

For further information, please contact:

Denise Lewis Martínez
Communications Officer
Association of Caribbean States
E-mail: communications@acs-aec.org
Tel : 1-868-622-9575
Fax : 1-868-622-1653