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Colleague Heads of Government, Deputy Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community; Ministers of Government, Distinguished Heads of Regional and International Organizations, Ladies and Gentlemen There were moments over the last two months when I did not think that I would be here today. That I stand here today, is itself a testament to the grace and provision of the almighty, the encouragement and steadfast support of you my colleagues in the CARICOM family, and the unwavering commitment of our friends in the internationally community. While I shall speak to the support and contribution of the CARICOM Community and our International friends later in my remarks, I wish to place on record our thanks for your support towards the relief and rebuilding of our fair Grenada. You would forgive me if I single out, one of our distinguished Caribbean leaders. I wish to thank the Most Honourable Patrick Augustus Manning, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for the swift response in our moment of national crisis. Prime Minister Manning, I thank you and would wish you to convey to the people of Trinidad and Tobago, the heartfelt thanks and appreciation of the people of Grenada for all that you have done. Prime Minister Manning I wish to thank you as well, for hosting this 10th Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community in Port of Spain, and to recognize the collective wisdom of my other colleague Heads in convening this Meeting at this particular time. When we as Heads reaffirmed our commitment to the CSME in Belize in 2002, we signalled that we were embarking on an ambitious programme, which placed us second only to the European Union. We must use this Meeting to assess how far we are from achieving our aspiration for the CSME and to reinforce our commitment to deliver the Single Market by Dec 31st, 2005. We must recommit to those actions critical for its commencement and agree on a road map for achieving them. This agenda if completed and agreement reached for decisive action, will demonstrate how serious we are about our Caribbean civilization. Colleagues, if we shirk our responsibility to complete this process, that for decades our peoples have desired, we will face a serious credibility problem. The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) continues to hold the promise of being our flagship for excellence in dispute resolution. Through the CCJ, we will have the competence to have compulsory and binding judicial settlement for all disputes arising out of the interpretation and application of the provisions of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. We must ensure that our resolve to establish the Caribbean Court of Justice does not flounder. In this regard, I’m reminded by the words of my colleague the Most Honorable Prime Minister of Belize, Said Musa, when he challenged us “do anything else, but deliver the court”. I’m pleased to report that the Grenadian Parliament in its first sitting since Ivan has passed the CCJ in its Original Jurisdiction. Our deliberations, over the next few days will give special consideration to getting the central elements of the Single Economy ready and operational by 2008. We will also need to accord a significant amount of time to the financing arrangements for the implementation of the CSME over the next six years. All of this comes at a particularly difficult time for many of our Regional economies. However, colleagues, we must stay the course, for there are no easy alternatives. This morning I wish to give a focus to a few important lessons for our Single Market and Single Economy in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan’s devastation of Grenada, which may be useful as we look ahead. In so doing, I invite you to stand and observe a one-minute silence for those victims of Hurricane Ivan, in Jamaica, our beloved Haiti and my own fair Grenada. Firstly, your response immediately following the hurricane demonstrated that that we have a functional CARICOM family. A CARICOM family in which the regard, care and compassion for each other is real, alive and well. The outpouring of love and support from all quarters within this CARICOM family has been particularly touching and has served to remind us that we are not alone. We have felt your presence; we have been strengthened by your prayers and by the many expressions of support for our recovery. We deeply believe that as we mourn the loss of our loved ones and begin the process of reconstruction that you too feel our pain and identify with our aspirations. But the response to Hurricane Ivan reduced to myth the fear of many, that CARICOM and Caribbean-ness was not an experience lived, loved and appreciated to the same degree by the youth of our Community as it is by all of us. Hurricane Ivan demonstrated that these fears are unfounded, as throughout the Region, the youngest among us made deliberate sacrifices to support their counterparts in Grenada in our time of need. Ladies and gentlemen, Hurricane Ivan has tested the cohesion of our CARICOM family and our bonds have been found to be unshakable. The Region after Hurricane Ivan will never be the same. Indeed, for a moment we transcended the narrow boundaries of small Sovereign States. The artificial boundaries of immigration and the sometimes arduous Customs procedures, work permit restrictions and passport requirements were swept aside. Indeed, just for a moment Grenada provided us, albeit under the most unfortunate of circumstances, with a glimpse of what our Caribbean region could be. For us in Grenada, having witnessed first hand the virtue of a seamless Caribbean, we are committed not to backslide. Hurricane Ivan also reaffirmed that our thinking in relation to the Development Fund was sound. Had the Fund been in place it would have triggered an automatic response at the Community Level, to the immediate needs of Member States such as Jamaica, Haiti and Grenada. Colleagues, particularly for the small economies of the OECS, it would be difficult to sell to our constituents that the obligations to create the Single Market and Economy should be embraced, without the associated facility of the Development Fund to support their harmonious integration in the CSME. Important lessons can also be adopted from the initiatives that were spearheaded by the private sector. A number of hotels have organized, through the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), to find alternative placements for Grenadian employees, in hotels outside Grenada. This is among the most meaningful form of support that Members of the CARICOM family can provide for Grenada at this time. For me this bears testament to the fact that our conceptualization of the CSME as a market for the free movement of labor is fundamentally sound and practical. In fact, as service employees in the hotel and hospitality industry leave Grenada for employment in other CARICOM countries, construction workers, salvage and yachting specialist, roofers and electricians, among others, have been arriving in Grenada seeking employment in the reconstruction of the Country’s ravished infrastructure. Colleagues, today I stand resolute in declaring that Grenada has benefited from the free movement of persons in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan and that my Country and our people are deeply committed to being a part of that great experiment that is the free movement of skills within the CSME. The challenge for us all is to facilitate this openness, even in instances where Member States are not confronted with natural disasters and other emergencies. Colleagues, time marches on and so too has the resilience of the Grenadian people, as they have now begun the task of reconstruction and rebuilding. A well-structured, institutional structure, the Agency for Reconstruction and Development is being formed. This Agency will spearhead the reconstruction effort and will draw on the collective intellect of our Caribbean peoples. Hurricane Ivan has also taught us that the state of disaster preparedness in the Caribbean is in urgent need of an overhaul. The Grenada experience suggests that an urgent review should be undertaken of shelters, evacuation procedures, response mechanism and systems, distribution networks, among other areas. I’m told by the specialist that none of the existing disaster preparedness plans in the Region would have been adequate to respond to Hurricane Ivan. CDERA and others have begun the task of assessing how our existing Disaster Management and response Systems can be strengthened and upgraded. Communication and utilities security must be examined. I would not wish my recent experience of being completely cut-off from all modes of communication on anyone. Colleagues we must all study quite closely the decentralization of services. Heads of Government must insist on a detailed plan of action before our next hurricane season and we must commit to finding the resources to institute this plan. Our Region cannot develop, if the hard-earned economic growth and development of our economies are repeatedly set back by natural disaster. As Grenada sets it sights on measurable targets, such as the restoration of public utilities, refurbishment and reopening of schools and commencement of our massive infrastructure renewal projects, we continue to be grateful to the proud men and women from across the Region who have served and the many who are still in Grenada at this time, sacrificing with us in our rebuilding effort. I wish to highlight the role being played by the regional security forces and our friends from Latin America. We deeply appreciate the role of the proud men and women of the Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force, the Guyana Defense Force and our sons and daughters of the Regional Security System (RSS) for their early intervention and hard work in restoring law and order in our country. To the Governments of Venezuela and Cuba for the assistance provided for infrastructure works immediately following Ivan, I say heartfelt thank you. We expect to receive military troops to assist with our reconstruction from Belize and Bermuda. We anticipate their arrival and will welcome them. We wish to express our gratitude for the support of the donors and the international financing community, and greatly anticipate your participation in our Donors Conference in Grenada, on November 19th. Grenada is a long way from where we ought to be, but with your collective contributions, we feel sure that the journey will be far less arduous. It would be remiss of me not to mention the role played by you colleagues, by the opposition parties in your countries and by your citizens. You have all toiled with us in so many respects in bringing relief in our most critical time of need. I have been asked by many of you, what does Grenada need at this time? Besides the obvious need for housing and support for sector redevelopment in agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, yachting and marinas and so on. We would welcome it if Members of the CARICOM family and our friends in the US, Canada, Europe and the rapidly growing Caribbean cruise lines industry were to accept our displaced hotel workers to work in their plants over the next year. Many of our hotels are taking the opportunity to expand their capacity and we expect the demand for service workers to expand by Jan 2006. To service this demand for service hotel staff, we forecast that we will need to train approximately 1000 new persons in tourism and hospitality related fields over the next year to eighteen months. We therefore request your support through scholarships and training opportunities for our people. Hurricane Ivan has impacted the life of every Grenadian, but the situation of youth and those leaving school at this time is a matter of great concern for us. Today, we have hundreds of our nations’ youth who have left school with the necessary qualifications that would have made it possible for them to find job opportunities in our tourism, distribution and other sectors. Given the devastation wrath by Ivan to our economy their hopes have been dashed. Others were planning to commence their tertiary education, with the support of family members. However, family resources that would have financed these academic pursuits will now need to be channeled to reconstruct family homes and businesses, most of which were uninsured. With no employment prospects, and no resources for further education, you can well imagine the sense of hopelessness that prevails. Grenada has a rich heritage founded on the independence of its people. Educational opportunity has been the factor most accountable for social mobility in our society. We recall the offer by many of you to provide secondary school places in your school system for our students. In an effort to keep our family units together, particularly given the tender age of many of our youth, we opted to place priority on reopening and rebuilding our schools in Grenada. We stand deeply grateful to those of you that did offer these secondary school placements, of which a few of our youth have availed themselves. I would like however, to suggest that the resources that were to be directed towards the placement of young people your schools, be re-directed to providing scholarships and the creation of job opportunities for them in your respective countries. We consider this to be an area of tangible assistance to us over the next eighteen months, as we rebuild our productive capacity at home. We have also requested similar assistance from our friends in the international community, for example President Carter has already identified a number of scholarships for our youth, but the sheer magnitude of the demands in this area, cries out for your further assistance. Colleagues we are cognizant that Grenada’s reconstruction and rebuilding will depend on us getting our productive sectors back into gear at the earliest possible time. Many of you have offered us your markets, for our agricultural produce, in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago for instance. We are grateful for this. Having accepted these offerings, from you our family members of CARICOM, it would be disingenuous for Member States to take actions, which are inimical to Grenada’s trading and commercial interest. We continue to be concerned about actions inconsistent with the Revised Treaty, which impair our countries trading interest and the commercial interest of many of the company’s resident in Grenada and in which our people maintain a stake. While we are fully capable of dealing with these threats to our industries, such situations do little more than detract us from the major task of rebuilding and reconstruction. We therefore make this request of Member States, if you truly wish to assist us as you have demonstrated in the post-Ivan recovery situation, do nothing that will impair the recovery of our productive sectors. Colleagues, I now take this opportunity to advise that in order to support the development and integration of our productive sectors into the CSME, we shall be seeking the accommodations of the Revised Treaty in Relation to Article 48, Article 164 and Chapter 7. In fact, as recently as Friday last in the Grenada Parliament, we assuaged the concerns of those on the other side by indicating that this exercise was in process and committed to a process of full consultations. Colleagues, I have been accused of not being able to get through remarks, without a mention of cricket. One must not disappoint, so I wish to seize this opportunity to reiterate that we continue to aspire to host Cricket World Cup in 2007. With the hard work and dedication of the Grenadian people, and with the support of our Caribbean brothers and our friends in the international community we believe that this is possible. I believe that the “New Grenada” we are building will surpass the unprecedented economic and social achievements that we attained in the pre-Ivan era. Keeping ourselves focused on this task will be critical not only to Grenada’s rapid recovery, but ultimately to the forging of a stronger CARICOM Single Market and Economy. Ironically, it may have taken Hurricane Ivan to demonstrate that the CSME is a ‘lived experience’, and that our CARICOM is an integration movement, vibrant and teaming with initiative. |
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