(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Statement by H.E. The Honourable Robert Morris, Ambassador of Barbados to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on the Occasion of the Presentation of Letters of Credence to the Secretary General Georgetown, Guyana, January 31, 2012
It is a great honour for me to have been appointed by the Prime Minister of Barbados to serve as my country’s Ambassador to the Caribbean Community. Today I deliver to you the credentials from Senator the Honourable Maxine McClean, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade accrediting me Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Barbados to the Caribbean Community.
It is my duty to reiterate to you Secretary General, the words expressed by my Prime Minister the Honourable Freundel Stuart which he delivered to the 32nd Conference of Heads of Government of the Community in his inaugural address.
“the Government of Barbados… remains unequivocally committed to the pursuit of Caribbean integration.”
In my own right, my years as a representative of labour in Barbados and throughout the Community, and as a teacher of History and Industrial Relations have engendered in me a passion for the ideals of our integration project, with the people of our Region at the core. That passion has served me well both professionally and personally. I have gained deep and longstanding associations across the length and breadth of this region. You can be assured that a special part of my assignment will be focussed on the empowerment of our sisters and brothers across the Community.
As my Prime Minister so eloquently stated in his inaugural speech to the Conference:
“Simply put, it is the Caribbean people who are at the centre of all of our efforts to build a Community. It is to the enhancement of their daily lives that these efforts are ultimately directed. The citizens of this diverse, creative, vibrant Caribbean society must share our passion and create their own momentum to propel us forward. For we are building a society, not just an economy, even though we recognise that economic development remains an indispensable tool towards the end.”
As a Community, we have been a part of many achievements of functional cooperation for which we can point to with pride. However, despite the many and varied areas of progress we have achieved as a Community, I know that there is still a long way to go before we can really register the type of success that will quell the voices of the naysayers. In this regard, implementation both nationally and at the level of the Secretariat is critical.
Prime Minister Stuart summed it up when he said in his inaugural statement:
“The implementation challenges will be even greater in the next decade, and the governance structures of our Community are already inadequate for the task. Finding an effective and sustainable solution that can command consensus will remain our most urgent priority.”
I therefore look forward to the revision of the governance structure of the Community. I anticipate that there will be some work ahead for all of us as the Secretariat seeks to restructure itself on the basis of the recommendations to flow from the Organisational Review of the Secretariat conducted last year.
The current global economic climate does not augur well for growth and development in the short term, but this could be a blessing in disguise. It is always in a crisis that families pull together to increase their capacities. Adversity has its place and could teach us that if unity can be contemplated and achieved in the worst of times, we can strive for even more in the best of times.
I could not help but notice as I reviewed the documents for the 15th Meeting of the Budget Committee that a significant portion of our budget is coming, not from the membership of the Community, but from donor sources. I have an appreciation for this reality. However, this situation is unsustainable, unpredictable and even embarrassing that our future prospects will be determined by donors. This is an area which I hope we can remedy in the short term.
Prime Minister Stuart made it clear that:
“We must find a way to strengthen and resource our Secretariat so that it no longer has to rely on the generosity of external donors for 58% of its budget, and so that some of its more senior and highly talented staff can be freed to focus less on the routinized and more on the creative.”
The Community already has a secret weapon in its arsenal which, if used effectively and with some faith, could serve us well in the long term on many fronts. That is the tool of foreign policy coordination. We all must realise the enormity of our unity when we choose to employ it fully.
It would be remiss of me if I did not mention the Community’s success in bringing international attention to the Caribbean Sea and to the work of the Caribbean Sea Commission of the Association of Caribbean States. The Secretariat’s support thus far is appreciated. I nonetheless hope that the Community can continue to count on the Secretariat’s support in giving priority to oceans governance and to the Caribbean Sea Initiative in particular. The Secretariat’s continued representation in meetings of the Caribbean Sea Commission would be invaluable in this regard.
Secretary General, you can be assured of my personal commitment to the ideals and objectives of the Caribbean Community. You can count on my support and that of the Government and people of Barbados in the discharge of your duty – an incredibly important duty which you embarked on not so long ago – that of leading the Community.
Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General, Colleagues.
I thank you.
