Mr. Chairman;
Right Honourable Prime Minister of Barbados;
Outgoing Chairman of the Council for Finance and Planning;
Other Ministers of Finance and Planning;
Central Bank Governors;
Representatives of International, Hemispheric and Regional Organisations;
Representatives of the Private Sector;
Distinguished Delegates;
Staff of the Caribbean Community Secretariat;
Members of the Media;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
In my capacity as Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this, the Eighth Meeting of the Council for Finance and Planning. This begins a very busy week for CARICOM, which will climax with the Twenty-Fourth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Montego Bay, during which time we will be celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Our Caribbean Community. Some of us are already in harness for this series of meetings.
I wish to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to you, the Delegates, for your presence here today notwithstanding your busy schedules, and to the Government and People of Jamaica for the excellent arrangements which have been put in place for this Meeting and for making us so welcome, once again, in what many of us perceive to be our second homeland.
This is the second Meeting of the COFAP for this year, the first being held in Trinidad and Tobago in February and signals the importance placed on issues of finance and planning affecting the Region. The COFAP, as you know, is a key organ of the Community and is charged with a number of critical macro-economic and other policy responsibilities relating to the Single Market and Economy.
Today’s Meeting is an interesting one, as it includes reporting on a number of new initiatives. One relates to a draft of the Caribbean Economic Performance Report 2003 which is the first annual review of its kind and was mandated by the Special Heads of Government Meeting of 16 August 2002 as one of the activities under the ‘Framework for Stabilising and Transforming Caribbean Economies’. In this regard, I welcome the convening yesterday, of the First Meeting of the Standing Committee of CARICOM Central Bank Governors and Directors of Finance/Financial Secretaries which was mandated by the Seventh Meeting of the COFAP to assist with the process of monitoring economic performance. A second initiative relates to the expected launch on 1 July of a TT$100M CARICOM Support Programme. A third initiative relates to the now completed ‘Feasibility Study for Establishing a Regional Credit Rating Agency for the Caribbean’.
Of course, we still have certain unresolved issues relating to the establishment of the Regional Stabilisation Fund. It would be most fitting if, during the Thirtieth Anniversary Celebrations of the Community, it could be announced that agreement had been reached on the financing, management structure and other modalities relating to the Fund.
We also need to reach speedy agreement on the cruise ship levy issue with respect to financing the Tourism Development Fund so that our Sustainable Development Strategy for the sector could be effectively implemented. The fallout from September 11 was compounded by the fear of travelling triggered by the Iraq War and so special measures are required to recapture market share by a Region that has been gradually losing its competitiveness within the last decade or so.
I have not touched on many other important issues that are on today’s Agenda and which merit action to be taken by the COFAP. The challenge is to ensure that we do not leave this Meeting without making substantial progress on the issues before us.
Finally, before concluding these few words, I would like to thank Mr. Locksley Smith, Adviser to the Minister of Finance and Planning of Jamaica, for his effective chairing of the Preparatory Meeting of Senior Officials over the last two days and for helping to bring us to the position we are at today.
I wish the Meeting all success.
