St. Lucia Hosts Conference on Small States

Contact: John Emmanuel

February 15, 1999 - St. Lucia is getting ready to play host to a major three-day International Conference on Small States. The February 17 –19 activity is being organized by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the World Bank, and will group Heads of State or Government of developing countries with populations under 1.5 million, together with development organizations and the private sector.

The conference will serve as the major event in the work of the joint Commonwealth-World Bank Task Force on Small States set up in October 1998.

It will seek to examine among other things how small states can best be integrated into the international community via more flexible international and national systems and policies.

The meeting will take place at the Royal St. Lucian hotel and will open with a welcome dinner, followed by seven plenary sessions and a round table discussion spread over two days.

The sessions will include deliberations on issues such as Aid Effectiveness in Small States; Economic Transition, World Bank business approaches, Mitigation of Natural Disasters and Trade Policy. The round table discussion will centre on the role of the private sector in development.

Among the Heads of State or Government expected to be in attendence are Barbados’ Prime Minister the Hon. Owen Arthur and St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister the Hon Dr. Denzil Douglas.

Prime Minister the Hon. Dr. Kenny Anthony who is hosting the conference, says he is very pleased that the World Bank has chosen St. Lucia as the venue for this important international meeeting. Dr. Anthony will deliver the opening address on February 18, the first working day of the conference.

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