The Fort Young Hotel was the venue for the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) 2008 National Accountability Seminar. The event was hosted by IICA, The Government of Dominica, and the Organization of American States and outlined IICA's contribution to the development of agriculture and rural communities in Dominica for 2008. The seminar was attended by officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Ministry of Tourism, IICA, OAS, and many other stakeholders from the agricultural sector. The Permanent Secretary of Agriculture, Mrs. Claudia Bellot, in her opening remarks expressed her gratitude to Mr. Kervin Stephenson, former Technical Specialist in the IICA Dominica office for continually working laboriously to implement IICA's

agenda for Dominica during his tenure. Mr. Stephenson left IICA's office in Dominica in May 2008 to take up the more senior position of Regional Technical Specialist in Projects to the Caribbean at IICA's Regional Office in St. Lucia.

Ms. Una May Gordon, IICA Eastern Caribbean States (ECS) Representative, in her remarks stated that this annual seminar was very important to IICA and expresed her gratitude to those present at the seminar and underscored the importance of their future participation. Ms. Gordon also stated that, apart from reviewing IICA's accomplishments for the past year one objective of this seminar is to show the transparency and accountability in IICA's actions. She went on to thank the Government of Dominica for it's support to IICA over the years and expressed her grattitude to the OAS for their support to the Agro-tourism project.

In his remarks Dr. Joseph Campbell, OAS Representative, sated that the major challenge for the Agro-tourism Project was to identify the linkages between agriculture and the increasingly growing tourism sector in order to devise strastegies to unite the two under the Agro-tourism umbrella for economic and social development. He stated that Dominica's natural resources provide an excellent linkage and the project was able to identify and address a number of constraints related to infrastructure, capital funding and training.

The Hon. Ian Douglas, Minister of Toursim, Legal Affairs, and Civil Aviation was also present at the Head Table and commented that the seminar was occurring at a critical time with regards to the global financial crisis which has impacted both on the tourisim and agriculture sectors. In relation to this he expressed his gratitude to IICA and the OAS for having spearheaded the Agro-tourism Project. The Hon. Minister also stated that Dominica, as a country, has always supported efforts to identify synergies existing between agriculture and tourism for catalysing economic development. He went on to say that the focus of Agro-tourism discussions should, however, be on finding new areas where agriculture and tourism can mutually support and not compete with each other.

The Hon. Matthew Walter, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in his remarks stated that Agro-tourism is a major income generator in Latin America and the Caribbean is poised to show the world that agriculture involves more than just growing and exporting crops. The Hon. Minister also went on to mention a number of areas and local developments such as The Cochran Rabbit Fest and organized organic farms tours at Bellvue Chopin in which synergies could be developed to promote the Agro-tourism conncept.

Technical Specialist in the IICA Dominica office, Mr. Kent E. Coipel, in his presentation, highlighted the achievements of IICA within the past year such as the deveopment of the draft National Policy for the Agriculture Environment, support to the establishment of an Investment Unit within the Ministry of Agriculture, support to the National Exhibition, implementation of the Agro-tourism Project, support to agribusiness ventures like 'Nelly's Chips' and 'Hilltop Fruits' and, the development of standards for export of fresh produce.