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notintec-4273ea70 Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo - Universidades del Caribe facilitarán la implementación del Acuerdo de Asociación Económica con la UE

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Publication date:

March 04 2010

Universities of the Caribbean will facilitate the implementation of the Economic Association Agreement with the EU

Representatives of some 12 Caribbean universities opened this Thursday in the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) the first international seminar-workshop on the role of universities as facilitators of the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA or EPA, Economic Partnership Agreement) between the CARIFORUM countries and the European Union.

The objective of the meeting is to know the implications of the EPA for the academies and funding opportunities proposed by the agreement to projects that allow universities to provide services to the productive sectors of the signatory countries, among other actions.

Miguel Escala, rector of INTEC, explained that the EPA opens a range of possibilities for universities to develop projects to accredit human resources, improve the quality of higher education and support Haiti in overcoming the post-earthquake crisis.

One of the ongoing initiatives between the universities of the region and the Dominican Engineers College (CODIA) is the Project Regional System of Engineering Accreditation in the Greater Caribbean (G-CREAS, Greater Caribbean Regional Engineering Accreditation System), of which the Dominican Republic is the headquarters through INTEC. This will accredit the engineers of the region to raise the quality and degree of updating.

Funds
The EPA contemplates financial assistance from the European Development Fund of the European Union, specifically, the regional program amounting to 165 millones de euros for the 2008-2013 period. The funds will be used to help implement the EPAs, to develop business development programs and to assist in the reform of the fiscal system of the CARIFORUM countries.

The agreement, in force since 2008, is made up of the 25 countries of the European Union, on the one hand, and, on the other, 14 countries of the Caribbean Community and the Dominican Republic, which form the Caribbean Forum of ACP States (Cariforum) . The latter is made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Granada Islands, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the Dominican Republic. .

The event was headed by Escala, Jaime Felipe, deputy director of the Directorate General of Regional Cooperation (DIGECOON), Juan Guliani Cury, Vice-Minister of Economic Affairs and Trade Negotiations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diógenes Céspedes, of Apec University and Ethley London, The University Council of Jamaica. Also participating were Altagracia López, director of the Higher Education Innovation Center (CINNES), América Bastidas, vice minister of the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development (MEPyD).

Participating universities

  • University of Suriname
  • University of Guyana
  • University of the West Indies - Mona (Jamaica)
  • University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus (Barbados)
  • University of Technology Jamaica
  • University of West Indies - Trinidad & Tobago

Dominican Republic

  • Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD)
  • Catholic University Santo Domingo (UCSD)
  • Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE)
  • University Action for Education (APEC)
  • Pedro Henríquez Ureña University (UNPHU)
  • Higher Institute of Agriculture (ISA)

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