Deputy Secretary-General, Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite will act as CARICOM Secretary-General from January 1 next year, pending the selection and appointment of a new Secretary-General to succeed Sir Edwin Carrington who will retire at the end of the year.
This announcement was made by Chairman of CARICOM, Bruce Golding, said a release from the CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown.
The Search Committee chaired by Barbados Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Maxine McClean which was established to identify suitable candidates to fill the post of Secretary-General submitted a progress report to the Bureau of Heads of Government on November 17.
CARICOM Heads of Government have approved the recommendation of the Bureau for the Search Committee to continue its search, review applications and conduct interviews with a view to submitting its recommendations to the Inter-sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government scheduled to be held in Grenada in late February/early March.
CARICOM Heads of Government further agreed that in the interim Ambassador Applewhaite would act as Secretary-General.
Applewhaite, a Barbadian national with wide experience in the diplomatic service, is a former Director of the Centre for International Studies at the Cave Hill Campus of the UWI. She has served as Deputy Secretary-General of CARICOM since 2003, the release added.
