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The Honourable Humphrey Hildenburg, Minister of Finance of Suriname and Chairman of the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP);
Honourable Prime Ministers of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia Honourable David Estwick and other Distinguished Ministers; President of the Caribbean Development Bank; Central Bank Governors and Deputy Governors; Assistant Secretary-General and Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat; Other Representatives of Regional and International Institutions; Other Distinguished Delegates and Officials; Representatives of the Media; Ladies and Gentlemen. It gives me great pleasure, this morning, to welcome you to this Thirteenth Meeting of the Caribbean Community’s Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP). I am particularly pleased to welcome the Honourable Humphrey Hildenburg, Minister of Finance of Suriname to the chair of this important Community Organ. Honourable Minister, your assumption of the Chairmanship of COFAP comes at a most turbulent period in the global economy. I have no doubt however, that you will steer this Council with the drive and vision required to guide the Region through these challenging times. Mr. Chairman, the fallout from the global financial and economic crisis is already being felt by our economies. It is already evident in our tourism sector. It is also to be expected as regards remittances, exports and foreign direct investments with concomitant effect on employment. While developed economies generally, have the capacity to offer significant stimuli packages to their populace, our Governments are constrained by the lack of fiscal policy space due particularly to high indebtedness and the increasing incidence of declining revenues. Our small economies therefore, have virtually no option but to come together as a Community to take decisive and collective actions to address not only their individual challenges but also to create an effective framework for joint economic decision-making. This is the only way in which they could effectively treat with what seems set to be a long and deep global economic downturn. This is therefore the moment and the time, for this Council to provide the vision, the measures and the leadership envisaged for it in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to steer the Community through testing times onto a platform for a resilient and viable CARICOM Single Market and Economy. To this end our Community Agenda today calls for action by Member States in respect of monetary and fiscal policy coordination; financial and capital market integration and for moving towards the creation of a common investment space. We have already embarked on the process of devising a Strategic Plan for Regional Development. We can seek to accelerate this agenda by adopting certain other limited initiatives. These can include for example, a meaningful and practical degree of currency convertibility as Member States have committed themselves to in Article 44 (1)(c) of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. In this regard we can follow the lead of your country, Mr Chairman, Suriname. Such an initiative would, among other things, reduce the cost of doing business in our Community as well as strengthen the spirit of community among our population. We can also move towards unifying the rules and regulations governing the operations of securities markets in the Community. To achieve these initiatives however, we need the private sector to join in playing a central role in what is essentially, the process of building the Single Economy. Mr. Chairman, one example of such bold initiatives that we have already achieved, is the successful establishment of the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF), an instrument designed, staffed and initially financed by our own resources. By so doing we have given a signal to the world that the Caribbean Community is capable of devising its own solutions to the challenges it faces. We are now inviting our development partners to join us in this endeavour to create the basis for self-sustaining growth and development. I am truly heartened by this display of cooperation and must congratulate all who have brought the process thus far and wish to enjoin them to bring it to its full fruition. In addition to the great contribution by Member States in this process, I wish to say a special word of thanks to and applaud the Caribbean Development Bank for the decisive role it has played and continues to play in the creation and operation of this unique instrument. Mr. Chairman, I must also recognize the role of the Committee of Central Bank Governors, a Body enshrined in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, for its contribution to the Region’s understanding of the current global financial and economic crisis. We look forward to its continuing critical role in this regard as well as to its contribution to building the Single Economy. Honourable Prime Ministers, Ministers of Finance and Planning, distinguished delegates, our Community’s situation can brook no delay. Time is not on our side. It calls for bold and decisive action. The consequences of inaction would certainly be unacceptable to the peoples of this Community. This situation is a microcosm of that of the global community, for as we meet in Barbados today, the wider global community is meeting in Davos, Switzerland searching, as we are doing for our Caribbean Community, for wider global solutions. Ladies and Gentlemen, I cannot conclude these brief remarks without thanking the officials under the chairmanship of the distinguished delegate of Suriname Mr. Harold Kolader, for their deliberations and recommendations which would no doubt aid the Ministerial Council in arriving at informed decisions. It would be remiss of me if I were not to thank my own Secretariat for its diligent work in not only preparing for the meeting but in also preparing the report of the meeting of officials for today’s ministerial session. In closing, I must commend the Government of Barbados for its graciousness in agreeing to host this Meeting. Furthermore, I must express my gratitude to the Government and People of Barbados for the splendid hospitality extended to delegations as well as my staff and I since our arrival in this beautiful country. But our stay here will be all the more memorable if this Meeting succeeds in achieving its objectives. I thank you. |
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