St. Kitts' Energy Minister Readies Himself for PetroCaribe Summit
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| St. Kitts' Energy Minister Dr. Earl Asim Martin at the Petrocaribe Ministers Council Meeting at the Jagua Hotel in Cienfuegos, Cuba on Thursday (Photo by Charles Jong) |
Cienfuegos, Cuba (December 20, 2007) -- St. Kitts' Energy Minister Dr. Earl Asim Martin participated in a Petrocaribe Ministers Council Meeting on the eve of the IV Petrocaribe Summit, which is scheduled to take place in Cienfuegos, Cuba on Friday.
Energy Ministers from the Petrocaribe member states spent Thursday formulating the Declaration of the 4th Petrocaribe Summit, which would be considered by their respective Heads of State and of Government on Friday.
Heads of State or of Government arrived Thursday evening on a charter flight that originated out of Barbados. Eastern Caribbean Heads of State or of Government who arrived Thursday evening included Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister, Baldwin Spencer, Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines' Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves. Energy Minister Dr. Earl Asim Martin represents St. Kitts' Head of State at the Summit.
The opening ceremony of the IV Petrocaribe Summit of Heads of State or of Government will on Friday morning, receive the keynote speech by His Excellency Raúl Castro Ruz as the Head of Delegation of the host country, and a statement by His Excellency Mr. Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. ~~Adz:Right~~
Following the working session of the Summit, the delegates and Heads of Delegations will leave the Summit venue to visit a PDV Housing Project and then take part in the reopening of the Camilo Cienfuegos Oil Refinery in that south-central Cuban port city.
St. Kitts has received three shipments of diesel oil since operationalizing the Petrocaribe agreement through PDV St. Kitts and Nevis Limited a few weeks ago.
Even before shipments of diesel oil began, the spirit of solidarity, cooperation and integration, which the agreement inspires, afforded St. Kitts' Prime Minister Dr. Denzil L. Douglas to announce that his Government had already received US$10 million to provide additional housing for low income families - one of the many socially-oriented benefits to be derived from the Petrocaribe cooperation. St. Kitts will soon witness the construction of large storage tanks that will store diesel oil and liquid propane gas (LPG).
