Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen
Hon Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
Other Heads of Government
Hon. Ministers of Government
Distinguished Delegates to the 14th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference
Members of Parliament
Your Excellencies, the Ambassadors to CARICOM and other Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished Invitees
Members of the Media
Ladies and gentlemen
Welcome to the Opening Ceremony of the 14th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community. I hope it is for you as great a pleasure being here as it is for me to welcome you.
This occasion is particularly pleasing to me as Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, for it is the year in which we celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the establishment of the Caribbean Community. It was in 1973, 4 July that the four Founding Fathers of CARICOM – Errol Barrow of Barbados, Forbes Burnham of Guyana, Michael Manley of Jamaica and Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago – the leaders of the then four independent member states of the earlier established Caribbean Free Trade Area (CARIFTA), took the historic step at Chaguaramas, here in Trinidad and Tobago, to establish the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM). Today, 30 years later, with eleven additional members, and four Associate Members, the Community proudly commences the celebration of this special Anniversary.
Also, today, to join us in our celebrations we are honoured to extend a special welcome to His Excellency Mr Jan Kavan, President of the 57th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, who has done us the signal honour of joining us at today’s Inter-Sessional Meeting.
Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, as you know quite well, the 30th Anniversary is the pearl anniversary and how appropriate. A pearl is defined in the dictionary as a treasure, a precious thing, a gem. Our Region can be said to encompass all of these features. Our nations are gems – ask the tourists – our people are precious – I know I’ve lived with them for many a year – and our Community which we celebrate today is indeed a rare treasure. Of this I am sure. In fact, I’ve had it checked by the “jewellers” who have assured me that it is the longest surviving integration grouping among developing countries in the world.
Today, as part of our celebration, we will be conferring on three of our Community’s outstanding citizens, Mr. Lloyd Best of Trinidad and Tobago, Dame Eugenia Charles of Dominica and Sir John Compton of Saint Lucia – our Community’s highest honour, the Order of the Caribbean Community, for their invaluable contribution to the life and development of our Community. It is with a sense of great pride that we congratulate them and join in celebrating their recognition by the peoples of the Caribbean Community. They join an illustrious group of Caribbean men and women who have dedicated much of their lives to the building of our Caribbean Community.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Caribbean Community we invite you all to join in celebrating this milestone in your Community’s development, in as many wholesome ways as you can. The Organs of the Community this week, launched a special Community Celebration Programme with a brilliant lecture on Wednesday night by the Hon. Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, followed last night at the University of the West Indies Learning Resource Centre by a most delightful cultural extravaganza. Today, to symbolise the spirit of unity which binds our Community together, one of our Community’s outstanding athletes will at the end of this very Ceremony, commence the CARICOM Torch of Unity Run. That Torch will be taken throughout the length and breath of our Community – Member States and Associate Member States – and will arrive in Jamaica in time for the 24th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community. The full programme of Celebrations planned by the Organs of the Community will soon be published.
Ladies and Gentlemen the achievement we celebrate as a Community is not the mere fortune of longevity or growth in numbers, important as those undoubtedly are. And very soon our numbers will grow with the imminent accession of Bermuda as one of our cluster of treasured Associate Members. But in a wide variety of fields – such as trade and economics, health and education, culture and foreign relations – we have seen progress, admittedly not nearly as much as we would have hoped for. Also, we have weathered many a storm and traversed many a rocky road – which many a developing country groupings have not.
Even as we celebrate however, our situation calls for serious stocktaking. In doing so, much will be seen to have been left undone – promise has vastly outstripped performance and decision, implementation. There is an urgent need to close those gaps. A clarion call must therefore now issue from this time and place to make this 30th Anniversary year as a year of implementation, with the Single Market and Economy (CSME), including the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) leading the way. And let us not forget what Carl Padmore reminded us last night – it is one single market so if you don’t move fast someone else might take it!
A second and no less urgent step, is the need to chart the course of the next 10 years of the Community’s life and development. Heads of Government will today continue to give this issue the priority consideration its importance demands. Yesterday, thanks to an initiative by the Hon. Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, some progress was made in this regard. But our labours will only meet with success, if and when, we as a people, redouble our efforts to build a Community more resistant to internal and external shocks, of which indeed, there are many confronting us – Crime and Aids, terrorism and war, just to name a few.
But today, as we approach the second generation in the life of the Community, let us celebrate the achievement of the first, and while doing so, move with determination and commitment, to redouble our efforts and build a Community worthy of the foundations laid by the Founding Fathers and one which our grandchildren deserve to inherit. In this way we will all have made our contribution to the building of a Caribbean Community worthy of the highest aspirations of our Caribbean Civilisation.
I thank you.
