Honourable Prime Ministers and Minister of Finance of Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Colleague Ministers of Finance
Secretary General of the Caribbean Community
Ladies and gentlemen
Delegates and guests.

I welcome you to the 13th COFAP meeting and hope that we will have fruitful discussions.

I want to thank my colleague of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for the way he chaired the COFAP in the past year.

This Thirteenth meeting of the Council of Ministers of Finance and Planning takes place at a time of international financial and economic turmoil. This impacts upon our small economies in the Caribbean. This crisis is demanding all our attention and innovative capacities to cushion the effects in our countries. This crisis could possibly slow down the pace of the CARICOM integration process. It is therefore of eminent importance that we as Ministers of Finance and Planning make all efforts to alleviate the negative effects of this crisis on our economies, so it will not delay the pace of our integration process. We must not lose sight of the fact that we need to advance the process we started off.

Possibly we may need to evaluate the position that we are at and outline precisely the steps needed to achieve the most elementary form of integration, whilst setting new targets for the next steps. Let us do what we are able to do taking into account the specific individual circumstances of our countries, but not to lose sight of the ultimate goal, the wellbeing of our peoples. The eyes of our constituencies are on us and there is a great expectancy in our countries of what we are doing.

I am confident that we will be able to achieve the results we have set out for this. Let us decide today on realistic actions to be taken to advance the process taking into consideration the current financial and economic developments so that our people can start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Ladies and gentlemen I am looking forward to working with you and I am seeking your cooperation to conclude this meeting with concrete results.

Finally, I wish to thank the Government of Barbados for hosting this meeting and for the excellent arrangements the CARICOM Secretariat has made for the meeting. Thank you

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org