PRESS RELEASE
CONCLUSION OF CARIBBEAN ELECTRIC UTILITIES CORPORATION (CARILEC) - ANNUAL REGIONAL ENERGY POLICY CONFERENCE

Policy makers in the Caribbean's energy sector ended their two day annual conference in Saint Lucia , Tuesday (6/4/04), with a renewed commitment to establish a sound policy framework that will assist in the delivery of products and services that are affordable and environmentally-friendly.

The group which included Government Ministers, Senior Technical Officers, Managers of Electric Utilities and suppliers of energy services, acknowledged that progress towards the sustainable development of the region has been limited more by the inadequate policies and the political choices that underlie them, than by constraints related to science and technology.

The policy makers lamented the relatively low level of investment in the energy sector especially in renewable energy research and development and agreed that a critical mass of scientific and technical skills and infrastructure was needed to assist Caribbean countries in developing, adapting and producing the technologies specific to their needs.

To this end the group agreed to promote the establishment of Regional Centres of Excellence including entities such as CARILEC and the UWI to amongst other things, develop the capacity of national energy management agencies and to promote full, timely and open exchange of energy –related data and information among them.

articipants also agreed that CARILEC should urgently transmit the outcomes and recommendations of the Conference to the Energy Task Force set up by CARICOM Heads of Government to produce a Regional Energy Policy.

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