Your Excellency Dame Louise Lake-Tack, Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda
The Honourable Winston Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda and Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community
Your Excellencies, Presidents of Guyana, Haiti and Suriname
Other Distinguished Heads of Government
Honourable Ministers
Secretaries-General of the Organisation of American States and of the Commonwealth [and of the Association of Caribbean States]
Members of the Diplomatic Corps including Ambassadors Accredited to the Caribbean Community
Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies
President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Director General of the OECS and other Heads of International and Regional Organisations
Specially invited guests Representatives of the Media
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
Welcome to you all and allow me however to extend special welcome to Prime Minister the Honourable Bruce Golding of Jamaica and Prime Minister the Honourable David Thompson of Barbados who are both attending their first Regular Meeting of the Conference. Gentlemen you have displayed to this Conference your perspicacity and unique vision and commitment to the Caribbean Community. Welcome Sirs.
This Twenty-Ninth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is being convened here in Antigua and Barbuda, a country unsurpassed in its breath-taking beauty – 365 beaches and all – with a strong tradition of hospitality and a rich legacy of resolute commitment to regional integration.
In recognition of this rich tradition of hospitality, please allow me on behalf of all delegates here, to thank the Government and people of Antigua and Barbuda for the wonderful hospitality extended to us and the efficient arrangements made for our Meeting. I can only express the hope that our Work Schedule would allow us all time to savour some of its breath-taking beauty – including at least one of its 365 beaches.
Ladies and Gentlemen, as regards this country’s history of deep commitment to regional integration, I am happy to draw to your attention that, here at Dickenson Bay where we are gathered this evening, 43 years ago three Caribbean Visionaries signed the Dickenson Bay Agreement. It is that Agreement which set the countries and territories of the Region on the road to Regional Integration – a path which we are still traversing today. Those three Visionaries were the Hon. Vere Cornwall Bird, then Chief Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Hon. Errol Walton Barrow, then Premier of Barbados and Hon. Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, then Premier of Guyana.
From the Agreement they signed, was to come the Caribbean Free Trade Area (CARIFTA) in 1968 – some 40 years ago; later came the Caribbean Community and Common Market in 1973.
The Community, now including the Single Market and Economy and comprising 15 Member States with a population of approximately 15 million and 5 Associate Members, will on Friday 4 July, be celebrating its 35th anniversary.
This process has widened significantly not only the membership of CARICOM, but its influence as well. In addition, at 35, CARICOM can lay claim to being the longest existing integration grouping among developing countries – and perhaps among all integration groupings, second only to the European Union (EU).
But longevity, necessary and valuable as it may be, is never sufficient. And age brings challenges as well as opportunities! In this latter regard, CARICOM has not been immune to the slings and arrows of economic fortune – oil shocks; loss of trading preferences in the global trade liberalisation process; and increasing marginalization of small states.
Added to these, we are in the frontline of the negative effects of climate change, particularly with respect to the increased intensity of hurricanes.
Our capacity to respond to the various challenges and to exploit such opportunities as they may bring, depend in significant measure, on the extent to which our Integration arrangements have been deepened and otherwise strengthened. Most importantly, that capacity depends on how resolute, as a people, is our commitment to the integration process. That depth and strength of commitment is indispensable if we are to overcome what can be formidable challenges from external as well as internal sources.
Our Heads of Government, through the Organs and Bodies of the Treaty, mainly the Conference and the various Councils of Ministers, have over the years sought to deepen the process of integration to empower the Community to respond to the various challenges and to exploit the opportunities – hence the move from a Free Trade Area (FTA) through Community and Common Market to the current Community, including a Single Market and Economy.
A number of critical supporting institutions have also been created along the way. These include the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), the Competition Commission, the Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) and the Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) among others. All of these Bodies serve to support the deepening and strengthening of the integration process.
Much depends on the appropriateness of these regional structures and on the efficacy of their functioning. Much also, depends on the National structures in support of the integration process and on the efficacy of their functioning.
Turning to the major recent challenge to which we must respond, it is that confronting Tourism – our single most important industry. Forces beyond our control – particularly high fuel prices – are compelling airlines to cut back on routes causing damage to this vital industry. So also is the related higher cost of travel.
In response, Heads of Government will spend the entire day tomorrow with industry representatives and technical specialists seeking solutions, including possibly, the long hoped-for closer cooperation among regionally owned and/or operated airlines.
Food security and rising food prices represent another critical challenge. This particular challenge was met by Heads of Government, in part, through an Agriculture Investment Forum, held last month which was designed to attract investment for increased regional agriculture production and to help stem the growth of our bulging food import bill.
The issue of rising energy cost, a tremendously difficult challenge in an era of oil prices of almost 150 US dollars a barrel, is on the Agenda of this Meeting. There must be no illusion however that this is a particularly difficult one.
So also, is the issue of Crime throughout the Community. In this regard, a Special Summit was held in Trinidad and Tobago in April which took some specific practical decisions. Implementation is now underway and we look forward to the beneficial results which must follow.
Climate Change, like oil prices – a global phenomenon – is also on the Agenda of this Meeting of Heads of Government.
Indebtedness remains a major difficulty facing middle income countries, including virtually all our countries. That subject is also on the Agenda of this Meeting of Heads of Government, some of whom have already been involved in laying the groundwork for a global solution to this problem.
Finally, in the field of External Trade Relations, the issue of the decision to sign the somewhat controversial Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is before our Heads of Government at this Meeting. That Agreement, though not without certain advantages, poses certain formidable challenges to our countries, especially in relation to the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) of our Community.
But if the external challenges are difficult, so too are the internal ones, centering around a number of institutional and psychological factors. There is no doubt that the decision-making structures and enforcement arrangements of the Community need urgent upgrading.
But the present situation itself is in part, a result of efforts by Heads of Government over more than a decade, to move to a Commission style of decision-making and implementation. Only this year, have Heads of Government decided to park that issue for the foreseeable future and to pursue alternatives arrangements, more acceptable to them all.
Much time may have been lost in this search for a more efficient governance mechanism for the Community.
Though the democratic way of proceeding, which underpins the Community’s functioning can sometimes can be protracted and even frustrating, the results are, generally more likely to be acceptable to all. The issue now is, can such an approach be found? Efforts to that end are being pursued. This issue has also had its impact on the administrative structure as well, and there too, similar efforts are afoot.
This situation may have raised issues regarding the less than quick rate of progress in achieving certain agreed Community objectives and thus the level of satisfaction with the process. Additionally, it may have led to some measure of weakening of coordination of Foreign Policy – a major pillar of the Community. It may even have encouraged some measure of doom saying.
But times like these call for depth of vision and resolute commitment to the integration process drawing on the spirit of Dickenson Bay.
In that context, one must not forget the achievements resulting from many areas of valuable cooperation. In education, for example, the Region through the Caribbean Examinations Council, has established its own matriculation and examination system at the secondary school level and this has engendered interest and participation from countries outside CARICOM.
In health, co-operation has taken place in a number of areas – important among them being in the area of procurement of pharmaceuticals. Due to that cooperation, the CARICOM Region became the first in the Americas to be declared free of polio and rubella.
In addition, the establishment of the Pan-Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) has been lauded, at the level of the United Nations, as an international best practice in the field.
In the area of disaster management, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Relief Agency (CDERA) has proven its value time and again.
In foreign policy, in international fora by and large the CARICOM voice and vote has been much sought after. In this year alone, the Community has been invited to participate in 8 Summits – ranging from Spain to Canada to Brazil to South Africa. The global community is clearly not indifferent to the views of CARICOM. Moreover, we must always be aware that the strength of the Community is in fact critically linked to the unity of its voice in the hemispheric and global environment.
The upcoming Fifth Summit of the Americas and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, both hosted by Trinidad and Tobago, will provide further valuable opportunities for our voice, as a Community, to be heard.
Finally, it is worth recalling that it was principally through the efforts of CARICOM that the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) was established.
In the field of sport, last year, this Region successfully staged one of the largest sporting events in the world, the Cricket World Cup. In that regard, the arrangements for security cooperation and the movement of thousands of people among the nine venue countries, were exemplary. The legacy of that successful operation, which was put in place by the Member States of our Community, will influence decisions to be taken at this Meeting of the Conference.
Indeed, the issue of security cooperation, now the fourth pillar of our integration arrangements, virtually underpins the efficacy of any and all of our initiatives.
In that continuing spirit of cooperation, we hope that at this Meeting, the CARICOM Development Fund, a critical instrument for the equitable development of our Community, will be launched.
Ladies and Gentlemen, despite our small size, world class performance is nothing new to the Caribbean. Our Region may be small but our people are not. We have produced three Nobel Laureates, one in economics and two in literature, – the highest ratio of Nobel Laureates per head of population, for any region in the world. We currently boast the two fastest men in the world and the batsman with the most runs in Test cricket and the highest Test and first class scores ever.
These are few examples of what we as a people, have achieved.
It is against this background, that I am honoured today, to express our warmest congratulations to the distinguished recipients of our Community’s highest Award – the Order of Caribbean Community (OCC): His Excellency Dr. Nicholas Joseph Orville Liverpool, DAH; Professor the Hon. Ralston (Rex) Nettleford; Hon. George Laming; and Mr. Brian Charles Lara. We also extend congratulations to Professor Barbara Bailey, recipient of the Ninth CARICOM Triennial Award for Women.
Lady and Gentlemen, your achievements help to identify us as a people, not only capable of holding our own in the world but of excelling. Do accept our warmest congratulations.
I am also pleased to extend heartfelt congratulations to the winners of the fourth Annual CARICOM 10K Run, Pamenos Ballantyne of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Akilah Morgan of Guyana which took place on Sunday and of the CARICOM Quiz Competition, St Kitts and Nevis, the finals of which took place just this morning. The Quiz Competition involved the Youth of middle school age and who knows, there maybe a few future OCC candidates among them!
At the core of our greatest achievements therefore is our most precious resource – our people. In the Region, we are quite aware that building this viable and prosperous Caribbean that is our goal, requires much more than our natural resources and the bricks supplied by the political, economic and legal masons. It requires the people of the Region to be the mortar which hold the bricks together and make the structure sturdy.
It is undoubtedly challenging, Ladies and Gentlemen, to bring peoples of different countries, levels of development, ethnicities, backgrounds and languages together, but the challenge, is not insurmountable if the will is there. Our honourees attest to this.
Therefore, as we confront these challenges, let us remember the toil, sweat and tears of the men and women who sacrificed much to realize the vision of an integrated Caribbean, convinced that that was the best way, perhaps the only way, to ensure a viable and prosperous Caribbean society, benefiting all its people.
In conclusion, I recall that William Shakespeare noted in Mark Antony’s oration at Julius Caesar’s funeral, that the evil men do, lives after them but the good is oft interred with their bones.
Today the Caribbean Community is living proof that that is not necessarily so, for the good that our three visionaries – Messrs. Barrow, Bird and Burnham – bequeathed us with the signing of the Dickenson Bay Agreement, certainly lives on.
I thank you.
