(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown) CARICOM Secretary-General, Amb. Irwin LaRocque, in his end-of-year message, reiterated the value of the integration movement in providing an improved standard of living for CARICOM citizens.
The provision of an even better service to citizens was at the core of our Community’s efforts, he said. These included delivery of better health systems, improving the ease of doing business; and creating the avenues for investment and jobs.
Noting that the value of the integration movement proved itself both home and abroad, the Secretary-General referred to CARICOM’s efforts to influence the international community to support its positions and to advance its interests.
“For us in the Caribbean Community, the outcome of these global discussions, particularly on the issue of climate change, bore significant relevance as we continued to seek to build our economic and environmental resilience both of which are priorities in the Community’s Strategic Plan.”
We did ourselves proud at each of the events with our unified approach resulting in favourable outcomes”, he added.
Please also see below a link to the audio visual version of the Secretary-General’s End of Year Message.
Full text of message:
End of Year Message by the Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassador Irwin LaRocque
This past year has been a most fulfilling one for us in the Caribbean Community. The value of our integration movement proved itself at home and abroad as we continued our efforts to provide an improved standard of living for all our citizens. The progress that we have made on many fronts has been due to our acting in concert to secure the best option for our Community.
At the core of our efforts is the provision of an even better service to our citizens. It is in the delivery of better health systems, in providing disaster management and relief, in devising a more relevant education system for our youth, in improving the ease of doing business, in creating the avenues for investment and jobs, in ensuring a safe and secure living environment that our integration process touches the lives of all of you.
We have been taking steps to strengthen our internal arrangements to allow for more effective delivery of the benefits of our integration movement to our citizens. In that regard, two major planks of our reform process have been put in place, both at the level of the Secretariat and in the Community. The CARICOM Committee of Ambassadors began its work earlier this year and will play a significant role in helping to remove the roadblocks which hinder the implementation of decisions.
In the Secretariat, I have established a Change Management Office to help me deliver a restructured Secretariat and a reformed Community institutional architecture which will emerge more effective, efficient and relevant to the needs of the people of the Community.
It is the stimulation of sustained economic growth which would create the jobs so necessary for maintaining a decent quality of life. Many of our Member States are facing financial and economic challenges including high debt and being graduated out of access to financing at concessional rates. We are making strides in addressing these issues, particularly with respect to changing the criteria for access to concessional financing. Also, interesting and innovative ideas have been put forward to alleviate the debt burden. The achievement of our goals in those two areas will greatly assist in the efforts to encourage growth.
Our attempts to influence the international community to support positions which advance our interests also met with some success at major global conferences held this year to deal comprehensively with the challenges of developing countries such as ours.
For us in the Caribbean Community, the outcome of these global discussions, particularly on the issue of climate change, bore significant relevance as we continued to seek to build our economic and environmental resilience both of which are priorities in the Community’s Strategic Plan. We did ourselves proud at each of the events with our unified approach resulting in favourable outcomes.
To fulfil the potential of the decisions taken at these conferences will require us to continue to strengthen the co-ordination of our foreign policy so that our advocacy will carry the weight of a tightly knit Community.
I am confident that with the initiatives underway, bolstered by the tangible evidence of what our unity can achieve, our Community will provide the safe, secure and viable society that will make us all proud to be citizens of CARICOM.
I take this opportunity to thank the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, their Ministers and senior officials for their unstinting commitment to our integration process. I also appreciate the on-going support of our stakeholders, such as civil society, the private sector and the Youth in our efforts at creating a Community for All. I would also like to acknowledge the on-going assistance of our International Development Partners. I cannot end without paying tribute to my staff at the CARICOM Secretariat for their dedication to the task.
I wish each and every one of you a joy-filled festive season and a happy, peaceful, prosperous and productive 2016.
