By the Caribbean Journal staff

The new OECS Assembly, which was initially slated to hold its first meeting in the middle of this month, will be inaugurated Aug. 10.

This was disclosed at the 55th meeting of the OECS Heads of Authority, which concluded in St Vincent last week.

According to Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, who represented the country at the meeting, a combined membership of government and opposition parliamentarians has been submitted to the OECS Secretariat in St Lucia.

“In Dominica’s case, the leader of the opposition and four from the government side will represent Dominica at this OECS Assembly,” he said. “We look forward to this assembly. Our hope is that very important regional matters which affect the people of the OECS will be discussed.”

The Revised Treaty of Basseterre, which governs the OECS’ move towards an Economic Union, outlines provisions for the Regional Assembly as one of five principles of the sub-regional grouping.

“As you know, there is a real global crisis affecting every single country of the OECS,” he said. “There is a dramatic drop in revenue and there is also an increase in expenditure, and the question is, how do you balance those things?”

That issue will be on the agenda at the OECS’ Monetary Council Meeting later this month in St Kitts and Nevis, he said.