(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana ) Any framework for economic stability and growth should also address social protection policies for the poor and vulnerable groups in our society.

This was the view of the Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Ambassador Irwin LaRocque as he addressed the opening of the Twenty-Fourth Session of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Speaking at the Guyana International Conference Centre in Georgetown on Thursday, the Secretary-General added: “We are ever conscious that the sustained economic growth and competitiveness which we seek will only result if we pay simultaneous attention to the social and environmental aspects of our development. Any strategy for regional development will be successful only to the extent that it promotes and ensures coherence and synergies among these mutually reinforcing dimensions.”

The Opening Ceremony of the one-day meeting also featured an address by the President of Guyana His Excellency Donald Ramotar as well as statements by the Honourable Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Guyana’s Foreign Minister, the Chair of the CDCC, the Honourable Patrick Simmons, Grenada’s Minister of Youth Empowerment and Sports, immediate past Chair of CDCC and Ms Diane Quarless, Director of ECLAC’s sub-regional Headquarters for the Caribbean.

In his statement, Secretary-General LaRocque stressed the importance of education in the quest to achieve competitiveness. Education, he said was not merely an input to our economies but lay at the very heart of the region’s competitiveness. The Region, he said, was faced with the task of ensuring congruence between education systems and the skills and attitudes necessary for competitiveness.

“The continuous recalibration of our education systems which is required, demands retooling at all levels and, importantly, our ability to analyse and assess the effectiveness of our efforts,” Ambassador LaRocque added.

Pointing out that the CARICOM Secretariat and ECLAC shared similar views on the importance of regional integration to the sustainable development of CARICOM States, the Secretary-General saw the need to take collaboration and co-operation between the two organisations to a higher level.

Such collaboration and co-operation would be based on a determined programme of activities that would address the peculiar needs of the Region, he said. “Essential for going forward, in that regard, would be enhancing the resources available to the ECLAC Sub-regional Office in Trinidad and Tobago for it to be better able to assist in finding solutions to the perennial social and economic problems of our Region,” the Secretary-General stated. “Such actions would assist the CARICOM Secretariat and ECLAC to enhance the delivery of initiatives beneficial to the sustainable development of our Community,” he added.

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