Jamaica will host the Forty-ninth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) from 6-8 July in Montego Bay, under the chairmanship of Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica.
Prime Minister Holness will assume the six-month chairmanship of the Community on 1 July 2025, succeeding the Hon. Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados. A Founding Member of CARICOM, Jamaica holds responsibility for External Trade Negotiations in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet.
Prior to the Meeting, on 5 July 2025, male and female professional and amateur athletes who are nationals of CARICOM Member States and Associate Members, will gather in Rose Hall, Montego Bay for the 18th CARICOM Road Races. This activity is intended to promote camaraderie among athletes in the Region and help to underscore the positive influence of sport and physical education on quality of life.
The opening ceremony of the Meeting, scheduled for Sunday 6 July, 5:00 p.m., at the Montego Bay Convention Centre (MBCC), will feature remarks by Prime Minister Holness and Dr. Carla Barnett, CARICOM Secretary-General.
Heads of Government will begin the two-day business sessions of the Conference on 7 July at the MBCC. They will focus on developments in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME); security issues; Haiti; external trade negotiations; climate change and the climate finance agenda; food and nutrition security; and preparations for the second Africa-CARICOM Summit.
Other matters for the attention of the CARICOM leaders include transportation, telecommunications, digitalisation of the tourism industry and the CARICOM Industrial Policy.
CARICOM Heads of Government met in Ocho Rios, Jamaica in 1982 for their third meeting following the establishment of the Caribbean Community in 1973. Jamaica hosted the Eleventh Meeting of the Conference in 1990. Montego Bay was the location of the Eighteenth, Twenty-Fourth, Thirty-First and Thirty-Ninth Regular Meetings of the Conference in 1997, 2003, 2010, and 2018, respectively.
At the Twenty-fourth Meeting of the Conference in Montego Bay in 2003, which marked the 30th anniversary of the Community, the Heads of Government adopted the Rose Hall Declaration on Regional Governance and Integrated Development which provided a roadmap for modernising the Regional Integration movement. It placed emphasis on improving regional governance; deepening the integration process in the context of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and the realities of the international economic environment; and establishing a respected place for Member States in the international system.
Excerpt: Resolution- Rose Hall Declaration
“On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of our Community, we have resolved to consolidate the achievements of the past and also to chart ‘New Directions’ for the future which are designed to give new meaning to the purposes of our Community, to further consolidate our common cultural identity and to promote an integration strategy that will optimise the development possibilities of the Region and thereby contribute to the well-being of its people.
“We, the Heads of Government are determined, and call upon the Organs of CARICOM, the Member Governments and Social Partners of the Community to be similarly resolute, in pursuing the fulfilment of these undertakings so that a marked deepening of integration in our Region will be achieved.”
