Bermuda is looking forward to becoming an associate member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) during this year, Premier of the British Caribbean dependency, Jennifer Smith, said.

Bermuda, found in the Caribbean Sea, is 21 square miles with a population of 62,900 people.

Smith, a member of the United Kingdom delegation at the Third Caribbean/United Kingdom Forum, which ended in Georgetown yesterday, said that Bermuda was closer to becoming an associate member of CARICOM.

She was advised, she said, that "our membership application has been accepted by the Heads of Government."

There was a number of areas in which Bermuda and CARICOM might, through their association, benefit from each other particularly through social interaction such as education, health and information technology.

Bermuda, which, she said, was the second country in the world to pass e-commerce legislation, has offered CARICOM countries assistance in information technology. It is now up to CARICOM to respond, she said, adding, "Bermuda is able to lend its experience and knowledge particularly in information technology."

Apart from passing e-commerce legislation, Smith told Stabroek News in an interview yesterday, Bermuda "is also pursuing e-government," another area in which CARICOM could benefit.

As a pro-active country in the fight against HIV and AIDS, she said that Bermuda was also willing to assist CARICOM in its HIV and AIDS programme. Next week Bermuda's Minister of Health and Family Services is due in Guyana to attend the Caribbean/UK meeting on HIV/AIDS.

In terms of education, she said that Bermuda recruited some of its teachers in the Caribbean and it recently signed an agreement with the University of the West Indies to facilitate training in veterinary science for Bermudan students. Teacher training was among other areas of joint cooperation being explored, she said, and Bermuda was looking to Barbados and Jamaica in this regard because of the proximity of the territory to those island countries.

Noting that worldwide there was a shortage of teachers with even the UK recruiting teachers in the region, she said that training was an area in which "we can develop our human potential. So that we do not only service our own needs but the needs of others."

Bermuda's delegation to the forum included senator and Chief of Staff, Lieutenant Colonel David Burch and Secretary to the Cabinet John Drinkwater and was part of the larger United Kingdom representation. Smith said, "we were not here in our own right [as a country] but it [was] an opportunity to link with our colleagues from the Caribbean and the UK." As was usual, she said that when politicians got together "much of what you do is not what is discussed around the conference table."

Smith told Stabroek News that on June 7 this year, she will celebrate her thirtieth year in politics. An artist by profession and a former newspaper editor, television producer and radio commentator, Smith said that she got involved in politics in 1972.

Stating that she was challenged every step of the way to becoming the party leader and premier, she said that she went through the ranks of her party, the Progressive Labour Party (PLP). She was deputy leader when the PLP's former leader died in 1996 and she took over the mantle of leadership until she was elected leader later in the year. She was re-elected leader in 1998 and 2000 and will face a challenge this year to retain the party's leadership.

Two years after she was elected leader of the PLP, the party was elected to government on November 9, 1998, after some 36 years in opposition. "So we are in our fourth year of government and we've completed about 75% of our mandate in terms of delivering on our elections promises to the people," she added.

Asked whether political independence was on the agenda for Bermuda, Smith replied "not high on the agenda right now."

The premier, who was on her second visit to Guyana, noted a Bermudan/Guyanese connection. She recalled that Bermuda's first Premier, Sir Edward Richards, popularly known as `ET' Richards was a Guyanese by birth. He went to Bermuda as a teacher, married a Bermudan woman and lived there until he died. After teaching, he studied law, became a lawyer and anthropologist. He was the first premier of Bermuda after changes were made to the country's constitution. Before that, the head of the Bermudan government was a Chief Minister.