(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The current global economic and financial crisis underscored the need for Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States to exploit all the benefits available through strengthened and accelerated regional action by the Community.
His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM made this point as he opened the Twelfth Meeting of the Budget Committee of the Community on Thursday at the CARICOM Secretariat headquarters, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana.
Mr Carrington pointed out that while every year presented its own challenges in our quest as small vulnerable States, to create a viable and prosperous Caribbean Community, the coming year, 2009 presented a unique and daunting challenge given the stark reality of the global economic and financial crisis.
In the face of that situation he informed the meeting that: “only last Saturday (22 November) at the Twenty-Fourth Meeting of the Bureau of the Conference of Heads of Government, the Committee of Central Bank Governors presented an enlightening and sobering Report on the implications for our Region, of that global crisis. In some of our most significant economic sectors, that reality is already having its effects,” the Secretary-General said.
Against that background, the Secretary-General announced that the Secretariat was committed to working within the same budget in 2009 as it did in 2008.
“It is our sincere hope that we will succeed in this bold initiative,” the Secretary-General said.
The Budget Committee which is meeting under the chairmanship of Mr. Ted Lewis, Senior Economic and Financial Analyst in Antigua and Barbuda’s Ministry of Finance and the Economy, is one of only three bodies created and recognised by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. The others are the Legal Affairs Committee and the Committee of Central Bank Governors. It examines the draft budget and the Work Programme of the Community prepared by the Secretariat, and submit recommendations to the Community Council.
