Former First Secretary at the OECS High Commission in Ottawa, Canada,  Ms. Anita Joseph will take up her new post as Head of the OECS office in Puerto Rico from December 2008. Ms. Joseph, a national of Dominica, has also worked as Foreign Service Officer and acting Director of Political Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in her native country.

The OECS Puerto Rico office was opened in 2006 following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the OECS and Puerto Rico in 2004 which identified a number of areas for collaboration. These include trade and investment, agriculture and fisheries, health, education, sports, information technology, tourism, justice and governance, security, disaster management and the environment, civil aviation, and air and sea ports management.

Ms. Joseph views Puerto Rico as an important hub for the region, and she expects the office to focus heavily on tourism, trade and investment promotion, as well as capacity-building support for disaster and natural resources management.  She also expects Puerto Rico’s position as a manufacturing and distribution centre to be of interest to the OECS, especially in areas such as pharmaceuticals production where the OECS joint pharmaceutical procurement operation may find areas for collaboration.The OECS Member States are Antigua/Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands