The stakeholders’ briefing on the political dialogue finally came off yesterday at the third attempt, with the consensus among them being that the talks appeared to be working.

There was however a minor glitch when the meeting, held at the offices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), received two reports instead of the joint report as the high representatives of President Bharrat Jagdeo and Leader of the Opposition Robert Corbin had originally agreed on. However, Stabroek News understands that the two reports were almost identical and that the differences were not significant. The differences were said to relate to the choice of words used in the reports.

Lance Carberry and Deryck Bernard represented the PNCR and Dr Roger Luncheon and Reepu Daman Persaud represented President Jagdeo.

A release from the UNDP last night said that the meeting “reviewed the progress in the implementation of matters agreed within the Communiqué of May 6, 2003 and the (June 18) Follow-Up Agreement.

It said too, “The Stakeholders Group ex-pressed its appreciation to the High Representatives and noted the comprehensive nature of the briefing material as well as the extent to which consensus was reached on the description of progress”.

Stabroek News understands that the stakeholders and high representatives were “engaged” in the discussion of the reports and the consensus was that considerable progress was being made in implementing the decisions.

Stabroek News understands too that following the departure of the high representatives the stakeholders considered the question of the composition of their group and decided that their next meeting would look at proposals at how to expand the grouping without making it unwieldy.

Among those present were representatives of the international donor community, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Private Sector Commission, and the Trades Union Congress.

The briefing is a decision of the June 18 Follow-Up Agreement between Jagdeo and Corbin and the UNDP has been mandated to perform the secretarial functions for the grouping.