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WASHINGTON DC – Prime Minister William Marlin and Minister of VROMI Angel Meyers are  currently on a working visit in Washington DC. On Tuesday May 2nd, a reception was held in honour of the Caribbean Heads of Delegation and co-hosted by the Honorable John Kerry, Secretary of State and the Council of the Americas.
The reception was held at the Benjamin Franklin Room at the U.S. State Department, Secretary of State John Kerry and Ambassador John Negroponte who is the Chairman Emeritus of the Council of Americas gave the opening remarks.
The event served as both the close of the Council of the Americas 46th Annual Washington Conference on the Americas and the opening for the U.S.-Caribbean-Central American Energy Summit. The Washington Conference on the Americas is the premier event on the region. Each year, this conference offers an excellent opportunity to hear from the most senior-level officials and engage with over 250 business and policy leaders, members of the diplomatic community, and media representatives from throughout the hemisphere.
On Wednesday, the Caribbean Heads of Delegation met with host Vice President Joe Biden. At the meeting, participating delegations included Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Sint Maarten, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and the Secretary-General of the CARICOM Secretariat, his Excellency Irwin LaRocque.
The meeting is a follow up to the Caribbean Energy Security Summit hosted in January last year by Vice President Joe Biden. According to the US State Department “ the summit will launch the results of the energy task force for the Caribbean and Central Americas announced by President Barack Obama last spring, and identify steps that the United States and Regional Leaders can take to ensure that citizens of these regions achieve a more secure, affordable and clean energy future.â€
The following partners: Inter- American Development Bank (IDB), Organization of American States (OAS), World Bank, Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Canada and Mexico also participated in the Energy Summit.
Photos: Prime Minister William Marlin at the reception along with Minister VROMI Angel Meyers and Senior Policy Advisor at the Department of Foreign Relations Patrice Gumbs Jr
Vice President Joe Biden will host the U.S.-Caribbean-Central American Energy Summit on May 3 and 4 in Washington, D.C. Â Building on the work of the Caribbean Energy Security Summit that the Vice President hosted in January 2015, the Summit will launch the results of the energy task force for the Caribbean and Central America announced by President Obama last spring, and identify steps that the United States and regional leaders can take to ensure that citizens of these regions achieve a more secure, affordable, and clean energy future.
The Energy Summit is the culmination of the Obama Administration’s energy initiatives in regions that pay some of the highest electricity prices in the Americas, hurting competitiveness and consumers.
The Task Force concludes with the publishing of a report and the launch of CARICOM‘s Caribbean Sustainable Energy Roadmap and Strategy (C-SERMS) Platform, and ongoing support to Central America’s regional electricity integration process.  In Central America, the Task Force recognized important advances in Central America’s regional electricity integration process and national energy markets, while recommending how Central America can grow and expand its regional power market to mobilize investment.
The U.S. Government will allocate more than $2 million worth of technical support and assistance to support the C-SERMS Platform through the Department of State, USAID, and the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States.
Source: US Department of StateÂ
