Madam Master of Ceremonies
Mr. President of COTA
Mr. Executive Secretary of COTA
Distinguished Delegates
Invited Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

Before I begin I wish to convey the sincere apologies of the Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, for not being here today to give this Feature Address, but he is unavoidably engaged in urgent matters of state in Belmopan. As our own tax officials can tell you, we are preparing to debate our national budget in parliament later on this week, and there is still a lot of executive and political work to be done before that time.

The Hon. Prime Minister has asked me to extend a warm welcome to you all and to pass on his best wishes for a productive and successful conference. He is aware that you have a packed schedule over the next few days, but he hopes that the conference organizers have left a little free time for you to see a bit more of Belize than just this conference facility.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is indeed a great honor and privilege to be here this morning to address this, the 20th General Assembly and Technical Conference of the Caribbean Organization of Tax Administrators, and to be able to extend to you a very warm of welcome on behalf of the Government and People of Belize.

I believe that this is the second time that we have had this distinct privilege of hosting the COTA annual conference and I want to thank the COTA Executive for choosing to Belize once again as the conference host.

The past year has been perhaps the most difficult year for the economies of the Caribbean Community in over a decade. We have all been faced with unprecedented increases in commodity prices, especially in the prices of fuel and food. A year ago, few would have predicted that in just twelve months the price of crude oil would have more than doubled from about US$65 to over US$130 per barrel.

At the same time we have also seen a sharp decline in economic growth in the larger more developed economies brought on, in part by the so-called sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States. Lower growth has quickly translated into weaker demand for goods and services coming out of our Region, particularly the demand for tourism services.

Added to this, we are witnessing the final stages of the removal of preferential prices for our agricultural products in the European Union, and its replacement by the soon-to- be implemented Economic Partnership Agreement, which some have described as an arrangement under which only the strong and most adaptable will benefit.

The impact of all this for the average man on the street has been nothing less than a sharp decline in his purchasing power as wages and salaries remain fixed while prices for many basic food items and essential services continue to climb to new record levels.

Governments across the region have been faced with increasing pressures to try to mitigate the impact of these price rises on the poor and most vulnerable members of our society. In response, many Governments, have tried to hold down price rises by reducing and removing altogether, duties and taxes on petroleum products and on essential food items. Some Governments have also introduced subsidies on a few basic food items. However, such action has come at significant cost to the budget, both on the revenue and the expenditure sides, resulting in deterioration in the fiscal accounts and in some cases a widening in the overall fiscal deficit.

To make up the shortfall, Governments have turned to their revenue collecting departments to urgently find more efficient and effective ways at mobilizing the additional resources so critically needed by Governments to provide basic public services, to pay wages and salaries, to service the public debt, and to fund priority capital projects. This is a fact of life for many tax administrations at the national level.

And this demand is often made against the background of fixed or even reduced resources with which to get the task done. I am sure this may sound familiar to our own Commissioner of Income Tax.

At the level of the Caribbean Community, the need to establish and expand the Single Market has become even more urgent if we are to weather this global economic storm.

It is only by becoming a larger and more integrated economic space that we can successfully compete on a global scale and withstand the buffeting of these ill winds. It is only by joining together to produce more and to trade more we can overcome these challenges and begin to reap the benefits of a Single Economy.

The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas provides for “the adoption of measures for the convergence of macro-economic performance and policies through the coordination or harmonization of monetary and fiscal policies, including in particular, policies relating to interest rates, exchange rates, tax structures and national budgetary deficits.”

The harmonization of tax systems within Caribbean Community is a critical element in the process toward economic integration. It is a pre-requisite for the improvement of the welfare of its citizens and the overall economic development of the region. It is only through cooperation and coordination in tax policies that we can develop a harmonized incentive structure to increase economic activity, employment, and growth across the Region.

The role of the tax administrators is pivotal if we are to achieve this objective.

It is against this background that I find the theme for this year’s COTA Conference, “Building Efficient Tax Administrations Toward Promoting National and Regional Development” to be very apt and timely.

As we see our economies undergoing rapid structural transformation and where tertiary activities (such as international financial services and even E-commerce and E-gaming) are quickly overtaking traditional agriculture production and light manufacture, there is a need for tax administrations to adapt and modernize their tax systems to respond to these rapidly changing times.

Such modernized tax systems, not only have to be efficient and effective, but have to be perceived to be fair and equitable, easy to understand and easy to comply with, and at the same time are protective of taxpayers rights. This is by no means a quick or easy task. It requires years of careful development and training, and sufficient financial and human resources to do so.

And indeed, COTA has taken the lead in assisting its member to meet his challenge.

Since its last general assembly held two years ago, COTA has held four bi-annual meetings of its Executive Council and has organized workshops and training in collaboration with CARTAC and the ECCB, the CARICOM Secretariat, and the United States Treasury Department, to name but a few, as well as provided technical assistance and specialized advice to many of its individual members. At the same time COTA continued work on the development of a regional tax-policy harmonization framework.

I want to congratulate COTA for its accomplishments to date and to urge it to continue to take the lead in this vital task.

Over the next few days we will hear presentations and discussions on such pertinent topics as “the Impact of Trade Liberalization on a Modern Tax System” and “Impact of International Agreements (for example, the Economic Partnership Agreement) on Taxation Systems in CARICOM, to name just the first two items on the Conference Program. The remaining items on the agenda are of equal relevance and importance in these changing times. I want to urge the participants here today to take full advantage of opportunity that the conference presents to share information and to learn from the experiences of each other.

I am sure that the presentations and discussions that follow will provide a wealth of information and ideas on how to develop more efficient tax systems and administrations that are responsive to the needs of each individual member state while at the same time setting a platform for greater cooperation and coordination on regional tax issues. I am also sure that the discussions will help to identify a set of best policies and practices that can be used as a guiding light in the tax modernization and harmonization process.

At the end of this year’s conference and on their return to home, I would urge each and every tax administrator to apply the knowledge and information received over the next few days, toward improving the effectiveness and efficiency of his or her own tax local administration. In doing so, he will in his own way be promoting the development of his country and but also the region as a whole.

In closing, I also want to join our Prime Minister in extending my personal best wishes for a productive and fruitful General Assembly and Technical Conference.

I thank you.