Charles to push for sustainable development, growth at ECLAC meeting in Cuba

Senator Pearnel Charles Jr., the recently appointed state minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, is to push for sustainable growth and development in the region when he participates in the 37th Session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Havana, Cuba.

The biennial session, which will run from May 7-11 at the Palacio de Convenciones in Havana, is the intergovernmental mechanism used to steer the work of ECLAC.

It will also be used to examine and assess the organisation’s work and progress over the last two years.

“It is in this forum that pressing issues affecting the region’s sustainable development are addressed and modalities for action agreed. I look forward to sharing with regional colleagues the most environmentally sustainable practices as we seek to advance economic and social development,” stated Charles.

The senator’s statement is in direct relation to the high level seminar titled: “The Inefficiency of Inequality”. Jamaica has been invited to sit on Panel 4 of that seminar which will focus on, ‘Territories, Infrastructure and the Environment: a space for the environmental big push’.

Other agenda items for the session include: Enhancing South-South Cooperation, promoting deeper Caribbean engagement with Latin America in pursuit of opportunities for growth and sustainable development and examining the regional agreement on access to information, participation and access to justice in environmental matters in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This will be Charles’ first official overseas trip as state minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, following his Toronto, Canada, Diaspora engagement in April, which overlapped with his time at the Ministry of National Security and the foreign ministry.