Mr. Iván Ogando at the Secretary General of the OECS in late February, with Mrs. M. Bini, H. Ramírez and K. Compton from ACP Legal Guadeloupe, Dominican Rep. and Saint Lucia in presence of Ms. V. Paul, Director.

The Secretariat of the CARICOM / CARIFORUM announced this week in Guyana, that the Dominican Ivan Ogando Lora took office as the first Director General of CARIFORUM. CARIFORUM is comprised of fourteen member countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

This new position was created from an agreement at the ministerial meeting held in Belize in April, as a mechanism to advance toward the implementation of projects of regional cooperation under the Cotonou Agreement, as well as to accelerate the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement between CARIFORUM countries and the European Union. The nomination of the Dominican Republic citizen was approved unanimously.

In this context Ogando Lora will be responsible for the coordination of regional activities aimed at supporting the efforts of countries in the group to take advantage of efficient financial cooperation from the European Development Fund under the Caribbean Regional Indicative Programme, and as well as ensure effective utilisation of trade commitments in the EPA.

Ogando Lora has extensive experience in issues related to cooperation and international trade negotiations. In this sense, he was Director of the CARIFORUM Programming Unit between 1995 and 1999. Hehas been head of the Secretariat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) during the most intense negotiations of this process (2000-2004) and was also part of the regional team that coordinated the EPA negotiations between 2005 and 2006. In diplomatic functions, he had the opportunity to open the first permanent mission of the Dominican Republic in Trinidad & Tobago in 1999.

He will head the Directorate General of CARIFORUM, in Georgetown, Guyana, home of the General Secretariat. We would like to take this opportunity to wish him success in his mission of regional integration, particularly for the implementation of the OHADAC legal integration.

Jean REALE
jean.reale@acplegal.net