His Excellency the Governor-General of The Bahamas Sir Orville Turnquest and Lady Turnquest
The Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham, Prime Minister of The Bahamas, and Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community and Mrs. Ingraham
Their Excellencies the Presidents of Guyana, Suriname and of the Dominican Republic
Other Distinguished Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community
Hon. Premier of Bermuda
Hon. Ministers
Hon. Deputy Leader and Minister of Tourism, Environment and Transport of the Cayman Islands
Their Excellencies the Secretaries-General of the Commonwealth, the Association of Caribbean States and the Director-General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Heads of Regional Organisations
The Chief Negotiator of the Regional Negotiating Machinery
Other Distinguished Delegates
Specially Invited Guests
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is a great honour and privilege to be afforded the opportunity to address you in the capacity of Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community. To be doing so in The Bahamas makes it a great pleasure as well. For the warm hospitality, the cordial and the fraternal welcome extended to us since our arrival here and the excellent arrangements made for this Meeting, I wish to convey our deepest thanks and gratitude to the Government and people of The Bahamas. For the wonderful cultural ambience which we have experienced, I wish to thank you the performers for creating such a wonderful atmosphere for this the Opening of the 22nd Meeting of the Conference. All of this augurs well for a successful and productive meeting which under your firm guidance, Mr. Chairman, is virtually assured.
This is the third occasion on which the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community is having the pleasure of meeting in The Bahamas. The two previous occasions were in July 1984 and in July 1993. On both occasions, it was at a crucial time for the Community. The Meeting in 1984 was the first after the 1983 events in Grenada; and the 1993 Meeting came at a time when you yourself, Mr. Chairman, felt impelled to express the following view, and I quote “with a few laudable and enviable exceptions, we will find a uniformly bleak perspective: flat economic growth, endemic unemployment and what is most disturbing, a pervasive sense of hopelessness particularly among our young people.”
This third occasion of our meeting here in The Bahamas is at a time no less critical, though for different reasons. At this time we are putting in place, even if with some difficulty, new structures, particularly the Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), in response to that “bleak perspective” of which you complained eight years ago, Mr. Chairman. We are also in the process of fine-tuning a Regional Negotiating Machinery which has already proven its worth in the first phase of multi-dimensional negotiations in which the Region has recently been involved.
We are also well and truly involved in the process of bringing a Haiti, democratically committed, into its rightful place in the Councils of the Caribbean Community. To that end, some three weeks ago, with the help of the Governments of Norway, The Bahamas and Haiti itself, a CARICOM Office was opened in Haiti to assist in the process of integrating that country into the Caribbean Community. Overall therefore, though continuing to encounter new major challenges, the Community is now in a period more of hope than of despair.
Already, since that last meeting in The Bahamas in 1993, many of the objectives referred to on that occasion by the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister of Jamaica, have been partially, if not totally, achieved. The Association of Caribbean States (ACS) is established and fully functioning. The Assembly of Caribbean Community Parliamentarians (ACCP) has been created and is slowly taking its place in the structure of the Community’s Institutions. To date, it has already had no less than three meetings. The Caribbean Investment Fund (CIF) has been established with a capital subscription of some US$50 million. Our relations with Cuba have been formalised with the signing of a CARICOM/Cuba Trade Agreement. And most important of all, the CSME and the CCJ are at the centre of current regional efforts at implementation.
However, though there have been these achievements by the Community in the recent past, it is clear that the challenges confronting us are becoming greater in their implications and more profound in their intensity. The threat, for example, to our traditional exports, the backbone of our regional economies, has been followed by threats to our offshore services sectors. In the multilateral financial institutions, and elsewhere, we have been the subject – or is it the victim? – of various forms of what is euphemistically referred to as graduation.
At the same time the Region, including The Bahamas, finds itself faced with having to play an active role in three major negotiating theatres simultaneously – the World Trade Organisation, the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the ACP European Union negotiations. All of these serve to give but a mere glimpse of the nature of the many, though not all, of the challenges to which the Region must rise.
But rise we cannot, if we do not embrace the relevant technology, train our work force and provide an environment attractive to investment. Rise we cannot, if our labour force is decimated by the modern plague – HIV/AIDS – to which much of our Region, especially our young people, has already fallen victim. Rise we cannot, if we fail to implement in time the decisions to which we have voluntarily subscribed but have not implemented, whether it be because we have not enacted the necessary national legislation, or because having done so, we have failed to enforce it.
A similar if not worse consequence would follow, if the many regional, hemispheric and international agreements to which we have severally and individually affixed our signatures are treated in like manner.
In this scenario however, there are a few beacons of light to our development. But these will only shine brightly if we commit ourselves to collective action. Critical in this regard is the Pan Caribbean Partnership Initiative through which the Region is fighting back against the scourge of HIV/AIDS fully aware that the gains therefrom would not only literally save lives, but also reinforce the achievement of the objectives of the Single Market and Economy. Indeed, there is no doubt that the Health of the Region is the Wealth of the Region.
It is therefore my hope that this Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government would not rise without adopting a firm and clear commitment here in Nassau:
- a commitment in the name of the people of our Region
- a commitment in the name of our Youth in particular.
A commitment, that is, to the reality of making the Health of the Region the Wealth of the Region. In this regard, I am delighted to say that on my way here I received from Mr. Christopher Hackett, a message to the Meeting from the Secretary-General of the United Nations which I will now read.
Mr. Chairman, the changed conditions, in which we as a Region must now earn our living call for many changes in our social attitudes and individual behaviour, particularly so in our mind-set and in our pace of response to events as well as to opportunities. Timing may not necessarily prove to be everything, but it is virtually certain to be decisive.
It is therefore with some satisfaction that I view the increasing effectiveness of the quasi cabinet of Heads of Government. The portfolios of sustainable development, external negotiations, justice and governance, single market and economy, tourism, services, security, agriculture and health, among others, have all recently begun to become increasingly active. This augurs well for our future, especially as they are likely to induce others to come into play.
Further progress in this regard, would however hinge on the extent to which there is greater involvement of the wider civil society in the development of the Community. And most critical in this context is the role to be played by our young people. It is in recognition of this realisation that the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors programme which was launched in Saint Lucia on the 4th of July 1993 – the very day before the 14th Meeting of the Conference was opened here in The Bahamas, was seen as holding so much promise.
The achievements of the programme have so far been modest but positive, as was shown by the Youth Explosion, the Youth Parliament and the Debate which came to a climax at the 10th Inter-Sessional Meeting in Suriname, all organised as part of the 25th Anniversary Celebrations of the Community. A landmark achievement at that Meeting, you will recall, was the exchange of views for the first time between Heads of Government and representatives of the regional Youth at Saramacca on the future of the Community. It is against this background that I am pleased to have among us at this Opening Ceremony, two of the Youth Ambassadors, Mr. George Carey and Miss Moya Thompson, of The Bahamas. We welcome you, “Excellencies”. We hope for and look forward to, effective representation from this quarter at the upcoming Tourism Summit and the Forward Together Conference with Civil Society, which are to be held later this year.
The preparations for these two important events, as indeed the many achievements of the Community this year, have benefitted significantly from the dynamic leadership of the outgoing Chairman to whom I must extend my thanks and gratitude for the ready consultation and leadership advice he so unstintingly provided me during his tenure. I know I can count on no less from his successor as we seek to bring these and other Community initiatives to fruition.
Critical among these initiatives is the soon-to-be-constructed permanent headquarters of the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community in Guyana.
In expressing our appreciation to those whose dedication, commitment and contribution have made possible the Community’s progress, one such contributor who has recently withdrawn from the front line readily comes to mind. I speak of Sir Alister McIntyre to whom I wish to pay public tribute for his contribution, not only to the regional integration process, but perhaps even more critically, to the training of the minds of many of those currently engaged in this process. No expression of gratitude can be too much. On behalf of the staff of the Secretariat, a Body of which he was once Secretary-General, I wish him a long and happy retirement if he ever learns how to do that!
A near similar sentiment is appropriate for the former President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Sir Neville Nicholls. His term completes that of the first generation of outstanding Presidents of that vital regional development institution.
While saying farewell to these two stalwarts, the process of renewal continues, and in that regard, we welcome the new Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Congratulations and welcome Hon. Prime Minister. Your rendezvous with history awaits you. We also welcome again and congratulate His Excellency the President of the Republic of Guyana, whose recent victory at the polls – coming as it did marginally before that of the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines – robs him of nothing but the claim to being the “new boy” on the block. Welcome back Mr. President.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am equally happy to extend a hearty welcome to the new President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. Compton Bourne. A near herculean task awaits you Mr. President, but somehow I feel confident it will be done.
It was my expectation when planning the arrangements for this meeting, and for the Opening Ceremony in particular that the Hon. John Osborne, recently reelected Chief Minister of Montserrat would have been with us today. Overwhelming burdens of State, he informed me last Thursday, would force him to miss this Meeting and to be represented by his Deputy, Dr. Lewis. Since then, a family bereavement prevented any possible change in his situation. I am sure that we will all wish to convey to him through his Deputy, our deepest sympathy. However, his absence does not prevent me from transmitting to him a warm welcome back to the helm of his country’s affairs and to the Councils of the Community. His great courage must be admired and that courage, his experience and some good fortune would all be needed by him to successfully take back his country from the savage hand of nature.
Mr. Chairman, our Community despite all its struggles and travails remains among the most outstanding of such groupings among developing nations – outstanding in terms of its scope of activities, its ambitions and its functioning longevity. I believe it does so also in regard to its humanity. One way in which this shows is in its recognition of those that serve it. It is against that background that I have the greatest pleasure in recognising and congratulating one who has steadfastly and devotedly served this Region, on his recent preferment – Sir Kenneth Dwight Venner, Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. Sir Kenneth, please accept our most heartfelt congratulations!
Mr. Chairman, you and your Colleague Heads have before you over the next few days an Agenda which seeks to respond to some of the most pressing social, economic, political and security issues of our times. Of them all, none poses a greater threat than HIV/AIDS and none promises greater opportunity than the establishment of our Single Market and Economy. Heads of Government need to grapple with both with equal skill and vision.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in closing let me extend heartiest congratulations to the Government and people of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas on the occasion of their upcoming 28th Anniversary of Independence, which virtually coincides with the 28th Anniversary of our Caribbean Community. In such an ambience, I can do no better than to invoke the Psalmist in exclaiming:
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.”
I thank you.
