CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (October 18, 2010) — Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning on Nevis Mr. Ernie Stapleton said Monday, that plans to host the two-day meetings of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Ministers of Environment and the Technical Advisory Meeting at the Mount Nevis Hotel, from October 19-20^th were advancing satisfactorily.

Mr. Stapleton gave the assurance that Nevis was ready to host the high-level meetings in an interview with the Department of Information.

“Plans are going very well and I am pretty satisfied that we are ready to host the two day meetings… it is the first for us but we are very happy to have this important meeting here in Nevis…We have the 18^th Technical Advisory Meeting on Tuesday beginning at 8:30. This Committee is the technical persons from the OECS Region that would meet and discuss matters as it relates to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Environment and Sustainable Development Unit.

“Out of that meeting which I am chairing, we would make recommendations to the Ministers of Environment which is the Environmental Policy Committee Meeting on Wednesday. These recommendations are what the technical people feel should be implemented to make the OECS a much better place, as it relates to sustainable development and environment,” he explained.

Minister with responsibility for the Environment and Physical Planning in the Nevis Island Administration Hon. Carlisle Powell is slated to chair the 14^th Ministerial Meeting on Wednesday.

Key agenda items Mr. Stapleton pointed to for Tuesday’s technical meeting would be reports on the activities of the OECS Environmental Sustainable Development Unit and that of member states over the last year.

He noted that they also planned to meet with some donor organisations and out of that meeting, they would come together, communicate, collaborate and make some recommendations.

On Tuesday from 6-8pm the official opening ceremony of the meeting will take place at the Mount Nevis Hotel.

The following day Wednesday, the ministers are expected to meet in a ministerial caucus. Subsequent to the morning meeting, Mr. Stapleton said the delegates would engage in a site visits.

“We are planning to have a site visit, plus the OECS wanted to see the Wind Farm Project because they have been supporting us all along with regard to the implementation of the Wind Farm.

“They also want to see the site where we are going to have the geothermal plant at Spring Hill and then the meeting will close with a cocktail reception from 7-9pm on Wednesday,” he said.

However, aside from the meetings, the Unit would simultaneously mount an exhibition at the Public Library in Charlestown. Mr. Stapleton said the event would be opened to the public and it was expected that schools would use the opportunity to expose students to information as it related to the OECS, as well as the OECS Environmental and Sustainable Development Unit.

“I would like to take this opportunity to invite the public to visit the exhibition on Tuesday and Wednesday to view the exhibition and ask questions and to have information as it relates to the OECS, the OECS Union as well as the OECS Environment and Sustainable Development Unit,” he said.