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Samuel Lewis Navarro, Panama's Minister of Foreign Affairs, shakes hands with
ACS Secretary General Luis Fernando Andrade Falla. Photo by Cesar Serrano

ACS to establish Center for Promotion
of Languages and Cultures here
by the Association of Caribbean States

The Association of Caribbean States (ACS), and the Republic of Panama recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish the Center for Promotion of Languages and Cultures (CPLC) of the Greater Caribbean.

ACS Secretary General, Ambassador Luis Fernando Andrade Falla and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Panama, His Excellency Samuel Lewis Navarro, formally signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) at a ceremony which took place on 6 August 2008, at the Palacio Bolivar, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Panama.

His Excellency Samuel Lewis Navarro addressed the gathering and spoke of the significance of the Centre for the region, “The creation of the Center for Promotion of Languages and Cultures of the Greater Caribbean fulfills a need felt by the Greater Caribbean community.”

In his remarks, ACS Secretary General, Ambassador Luis Fernando Andrade Falla emphasized that the signing of the MOU is “a demonstration of the great interest that Panama has towards the integration of the Greater Caribbean area.”

The Center for Promotion of Languages and Cultures of the Greater Caribbean will serve to position the Greater Caribbean region as a point of reference for the learning of the main languages spoken in the Caribbean Basin (French, English, Spanish), thereby contributing to the multilingualism of the region’s population.

The MOU signed between the ACS and the Government of Panama to host the center’s headquarters at the City of Knowledge in Panama, marks the first step in the process to establishing the CPLC. As the project advances, similar agreements are expected to be signed with key regional institutions to become satellite centers of excellence.

The CPLC is geared towards employees, management and administrative staff, language teachers, business persons, government negotiators, and young people of the region, enabling them to work in cooperation with their closest geographical neighbors.