In brief opening remarks Thursday 23 July 2009 at the start of the Third Meeting of the Secretary-General of CARICOM and Heads of Community Institutions, His Excellency Edwin Carrington pointed out that implementation, which was considered the “Achilles heel” of the Community, should be the Forum’s watchword.
“For, it is on the devising of methods of implementation of decisions, particularly by the Heads of Government and on the execution of those methods that the success of this Forum will be determined,” Secretary-General Carrington said. Thursday’s Meeting continued the process towards developing synergies among Community Institutions to advance a common regional agenda by pooling their resources and building on their collective strengths for the harmonisation of policies, practices and standards across the Region. The other Meetings of the Secretary-General and Heads of Community Institutions were held in 2007 and 2008.
Mr. Carrington said that the Meeting had been established as a “key event on the Community’s calendar”. He noted that the synergy and interaction envisaged when this Meeting was first conceived had begun to manifest itself, particularly with regard to the Memorandum of Understanding signed last year between CARICAD and IMPACS to provide standardized training of Immigration Officers across the Region.
“It is critical in going forward, that we look at this enterprise as a joint one with all parties being involved, all lending their skills, all pulling in the same direction against the dead weight of individual action,” Secretary-General Carrington said.
Over the next two days, the delegates will meet in sectoral clusters – Agriculture and Food Security; Air Transportation and Security; Climate Change and Water Management; and Human Resource Development. They will review reports of the work done during the past two years and will discuss plans for coordinating their efforts to fulfil the mandates arising from the recent 30th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government held in Georgetown 2-5 July 2009.
