By Clint Chan Tack Wednesday, November 11 2009

THE Commonwealth Youth Forum will be held in Tobago and the Prime Minister’s Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s will not host the leaders’ retreat of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

National Secretariat coordinator, Ambassador Luis Rodriguez, made this disclosure at a news conference at the International Financial Centre Tower in Port-of-Spain on Monday.

Rodriguez said the Youth Forum will be held on November 21 in Tobago. Rodriguez revealed that one major departure from the Fifth Summit of the Americas in April is that the CHOGM’s plenary sessions and leaders’ retreat will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Centre from November 27 to 29, following the CHOGM’s opening ceremony at the Port-of-Spain Academy for the Performing Arts on November 27.

During the Fifth Summit, the leaders’ retreat was held at the Diplomatic Centre on April 19. A new building (which will house an outdoor stage, media and drivers’ lounges among other facilities) which is estimated to cost $10 million is being built at the centre and expected to be completed by December 31.

The Commonwealth People’s Forum takes place at the Cascadia Hotel from November 23 to 26.

The Commonwealth Business Forum will be held on the cruise ships Caribbean Princess and Serenade of the Seas over the same period. Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee Scoon and her Commonwealth counterparts will meet at the Hilton Trinidad prior to the CHOGM.

Recalling there was a “very heightened level of security” for the Fifth Summit of the Americas in April partly because of the presence of United States President Barack Obama, Rodriguez stated that appropriate levels of security will be in place for Commonwealth leaders from the moment they arrive for CHOGM until their departure.

Stating that security and other media briefings will be held in the coming days about other CHOGM preparations, Rodriguez said he was satisfied that “we are ready” to host a successful CHOGM.