Mr. Chairman, Honourable Tillman Thomas, Prime Minister of Grenada
Your Excellencies, the Presidents of Guyana and Suriname Other Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community Honourable Ministers Delegates Representatives of the Media Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
I welcome the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community and all other delegates to this the Twenty-Second Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference. In so doing, I must extend sincere appreciation to the Government and people of Grenada for the excellent arrangements and hospitality that have been put in place for this important Meeting.
Since our last Meeting in July 2010, the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines have given a renewed mandate to Dr. the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves to lead that country. May I extend hearty congratulations, to you, Prime Minister; I look forward to your continued incisive contributions to these meetings.
Since our last Meeting also, the Region has lost one member and a former member of the Conference. I refer to the Honourable David Thompson, the late Prime Minister of Barbados and the Honourable John Osborne, the late former Chief Minister of Montserrat. In offering our condolences to the government and peoples of these two Members and to the families of the deceased leaders, I ask that we show our respect by standing for a minute of silence in their honour.
Mr. Chairman, it is serendipitous that the Region’s leaders have returned to Grand Anse in an environment of serious economic, financial and other difficulties in the world and in our countries. It was in this very room, that 22 years ago, faced with similar circumstances our leaders laid out a vision for the Community in the landmark 1989 document: “Anse Declaration and Work Programme for the Advancement of the Integration Movement
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In 1989, the prospect of the European Single Market, the impending loss of preferences, the looming North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), a global recession, high levels of debt, expanding trade in illicit drugs and a review of regional institutions constituted some of the immediate matters commanding the attention of our leaders.
Today, events which were on the horizon 21 years ago have come into full view and those challenges with which we were grappling have not gone away. Indeed, added to the list of threats to our viability and security, are climate change, food insecurity, economic and financial crises and crime and violence. A decade into the 21st century, not only has very little seemed to have changed but indeed the environment has worsened.
What has not changed is the need to confront these challenges, the need to ensure our place in the global community and the need to enhance the quality of life of our peoples.
By the time of that 1989 Meeting, our Community had evolved from failed Federation to the Caribbean Free Trade Area (CARIFTA), to a Community and Common Market. The Grand Anse Declaration then set our ship towards the destination of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Mr. Chairman, the time has come for us to take stock. Have we gone as far as we can in that direction? Should we set our compass for another direction? If so, where?
Any objective assessment of the Community would reveal that significant advances have been made in an integration movement that is the longest surviving in the developing world and, at almost 38 years of age, second only to the European Union in regional economic groupings globally.
We have a functioning Single Market with requisite institutions to support it, including a court to give it legal certainty. We administer our own examinations systems at the secondary and tertiary levels of education. We have created an internationally-recognised best practice in the battle against HIV/AIDs in the Pan-Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/Aids (PANCAP), which has stabilized the rate of infection of the disease in the Region (although much more work remains to be done in reducing stigma and discrimination) . We came together in bringing the issue of the threat of chronic Non-Communicable Diseases to the attention of the world resulting in a United Nations General Assembly Special Summit next September. We conduct our External Trade negotiations as one Community through our Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN). We have created the first multi-lateral border-crossing programme in the world – CARIPASS – which will soon be available to the travelling public.
These are just some of the major achievements, most of which have come to fruition in the last 20 years as a natural extension of the basic vision outlined in the Grand Anse Declaration.
The Declaration also pointed to the importance of positioning the Region not only to survive, but to compete effectively in the global economy. It is now well established that such competition depends heavily on the retooling of our workforce at both technical and managerial levels with a new range of skills and attitudes for the emerging information society and economy. Of some concern however is the inadequate external efficiency, evident in the continuing mismatch between education and training and the labour market requirements. We have much to gain as a Region from visioning together and planning strategically, not only in the area of education but in all areas of human and social development to ensure that our citizens of all ages are appropriately equipped for the task.
The recent streamlining of Vocational education and training through the regional system of Caribbean Vocational Qualifications is a step in the right direction.
We are only too aware of the circumstances which seek to frustrate achievement of our human development goals. The recent report of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development highlighted several of these based on the situation analysis conducted. The Commission also demonstrated quite vividly, the importance of addressing these areas by presenting statistics on the effects on GDP of inattention to the issues.
Regional programmes addressing non-communicable diseases, crime prevention and drug demand reduction, development of curricula, the participation of youth in governance, cultural industries and several other areas are in train.
Several policy frameworks have been developed, and many interventions made but perhaps it is time for us to address the development of a coordinated Human Resource Development Strategy as recommended in the Girvan Vision: – A strategy which does not focus on Human Development in isolation, but which makes strategic linkages to our economic and other strategies and has as an important integrating theme, the issue of development of regional identity and fostering regionalism as an important resource.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, yes, we have fallen short in a number of areas. Yes, we have not met the expectation of a public who believe, for example, that there should be no problem as CARICOM citizens, if they choose to reside in Kingston or Kingstown, in St John’s or St George’s. Clearly there is work to be done.
It is for this reason that one of the main items on the Agenda of this Inter-Sessional Meeting is the determination of our priorities which would give a clear indication of the focus and direction that the integration movement must take. The Community Council of Ministers at their Meeting over the past two days in approving a reduced budget for the Secretariat for 2011, also gave consideration to this matter.
The Community Council was the spirit of generosity itself and in recommitting themselves to the regional integration enterprise, ensured that the Secretariat received a budget which, while containing operating costs, ensured that the work programme will continue in the priority areas. When our Member States sneeze we catch a cold. When they tighten their belts we tighten our belts. The Secretariat therefore, in presenting its reduced budget to the Community Council took account of the conditions in our Member States and their ability to contribute to the Secretariat’s budget among so many other competing calls on their slim resources. The reduced budget will not mean a cutting of staff but it will mean managing what we do better by using even more innovative methods. It will mean continuing to do more with less. It will mean not filling some positions as they become vacant. But it will not mean the laying off of staff.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, once our Heads of Government have re-established the priorities, focus and direction, action must be taken to communicate clearly with, consult and encourage active involvement of the regional public so that our people are not only beneficiaries of our development efforts but involved as active participants, as the late writer CLR James has always maintained. Indeed this view has come to be commonly accepted in the Region.
In resetting our goals, consideration must be given to devising the means for ensuring that the citizens of the Community are fully seized of the benefits of integration to them and the change that they signify in their daily lives. This is a task for all of us. It has to be a collaborative, co-operative effort of all our institutions, governments and civil society.
It is that same type of effort, and one which is sustained, that is needed to assist our Member State Haiti as it grapples with the myriad problems posed in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake of 12 January 2010.This Caribbean Community must maintain and increase its resolve to ensure that the international community does not waver in its commitment to the recovery and rehabilitation of Haiti. The CARICOM Special Representative of the Heads of Government on Haiti, the Most Honourable Percival Patterson has been relentless in pursuit of that objective and I wish to commend him and his team for their work on behalf of the people of Haiti and the Community.
Mr. Chairman, our countries in the Region have important assets and advantages. How we pool them and deploy them to benefit the people of our Community is the crux of the task at hand. I posit that to maximise that benefit, the need to deepen our integration process has not lessened. If anything it has become more urgent.
In closing, I leave you with an excerpt from the preamble to the 1989 Grand Anse Declaration: “we the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community inspired by the spirit of cooperation and solidarity among us, are moved by the need to work expeditiously together to deepen the integration process and strengthen the Caribbean Community in all of its dimensions.”
This vision has not changed. If anything it has become more compelling in the face of the even greater threats and difficulties posed by the global environment in all its guises. Indeed, the key word in that quotation, at this time, is expeditiously. We might be temporarily distracted from this vision by the internal difficulties our individual Members may be experiencing. It will be a brave person to deny the truism that no individual Member can make it on its own. It is no exaggeration to say that our very survival as a people depends on our integration. If ever there was urgency in this undertaking, it is now. Our people cannot wait a day longer.
I thank you.