Mr President
Secretary General
Excellencies
Ladies and gentlemen
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PRIESIDENT
I begin by congratulating you Mr President, on your election to preside over the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Your election comes at a time when we are about to commence the second phase in the elaboration of the Post 2015 development agenda, which I am confident, as I am sure we all are, that you will administer and lead with distinction.
I also thank and congratulate His Excellency John Ash, of Antigua and Barbuda. During his tenure as President he laid the foundation and set the conditions for the elaboration of a new development agenda geared towards influencing the sustainable development of Members of this Assembly.
INTRODUCTION
It is a great privilege to address you today and share the perspectives of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago on our priorities for the delivery and implementation of a “transformative Post-2105 Development Agenda” in accordance with the theme aptly selected by you Mr. President.
Last year, we considered how we would set the stage to begin the process to be launched during this 69th session on finalisation of the Post 2015 development agenda.
On that occasion I noted that, with the adoption of the Millennium Declaration and the introduction of the Millennium Development Goals, a new chapter was opened for the United Nations.
This chapter would see the UN positioned as a vehicle to assist developing countries, especially the most vulnerable, in their efforts to help reduce poverty and hunger, and provide an enabling environment to assist States to develop their economies so that their people could can rise out of persistent poverty.
Measures must be put in place to spur a proactive rather than reactive approachto the issue of development.
Fourteen years later, with the experience of challenges and lessons the MDGsimplementation, we are now at a critical juncture in operationalising the elements that we agreed to at Rio+20 would, so that they can constitute the Future We Want.
The current model was built on what we agreed to at the Millennium Summit and has fallen short of the expectations of many developing countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, which has surpassed some of the MDG targets.
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has been able to achieve this objective because it forms an integral part of our Medium Term Policy Framework 2011. We have incorporated and aligned the MDGs and their targets with Trinidad and Tobago's medium -term national priorities.
Consequently, some of the goals, targets and indicators were modified in the light of Trinidad and Tobago's' unique development circumstances and achievement of several of the MDGs.This approach resulted in, for example, modified targets for Education with the pursuit of universal early childhood education and a 60 percent participation rate at tertiary education by 2015.
I am delighted to tell you that on both counts, we have surpassed our targets – with universal pre-school education on course for 2015, and with a new tertiary participation rate of over 65 percent.
I am also pleased to underscore that my country is well poised to achieve 70 percent of the 43 targets across 8 goals which are considered to be relevant to the national context. This percentage comprises 42 percent of targets which have already been met and 28 percent which are likely to be met by 2015.
With good success, and lessons learnt, our work is therefore cut out for us.
CARICOM DEVELOPMENT
Mr. President, as part of the global community, Trinidad and Tobago welcomes the outcomes of the various milestones in the processthat we have achieved to date.
