New Minister of Urban Development, Culture, Labour and Electoral Matters, Rene Baptiste, has begun a series of internal meetings with her staff.

Last week, she met with the Supervisor of Elections and the Deputy, as well as the Labour Commissioner and Deputy Labour Commissioner. Minister Baptiste and Permanent Secretary Andreas Wickham were updated on current programmes of these crucial ministerial units.{{more}}

Minister Baptiste is expected to meet with the trade unions, the Employers Federation and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce shortly.

In other news, the Minister announced the appointment of Cecil John of Edinboro, a retired senior public servant as the new hearing officer attached to the Ministry of Labour.

The Minister also announced that she is looking forward to the receipt of the official reports on the general election of 2005 from the Supervisor of Elections, and the high level Election observer missions from the OAS and Caricom.