Press release 93/2004
(18 June 2004)

Mr. Chairman, Hon. Harold Lovell, Minister of Tourism, Foreign Affairs, International Transportation and Trade of Antigua and Barbuda
Other Honourable Ministers
Other Distinguished Delegates
Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat
Ladies and Gentlemen

As Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, it is my pleasure this morning in making these brief opening remarks to welcome you all to this Fourteenth Meeting of the Community Council of Ministers, the second highest organ of the Caribbean Community. In doing so, I must once again express our gratitude to the Government and people of Trinidad and Tobago for their warm hospitality and the excellent arrangements they have put in place to facilitate our deliberations. Our gratitude takes on even greater dimensions when one considers their graciousness in responding so positively to what was a very late request.

Honourable Ministers, in extending a warm welcome to you all, I must make special mention of your newest member, your Chairman, the Hon. Harold Lovell of Antigua and Barbuda. He, like his Prime Minister, has had to assume the role of regional leadership on taking national office. We are however confident, Honourable Minister, that there is no equivalent between your wisdom and your governmental experience, and we are therefore sure that we are in capable hands.

Honourable Ministers, the last Meeting of the Community Council was a mere three months ago - 6 March. Likewise, Heads of Government, when they gather in Grenada on 4 July, will be meeting for the second time in roughly the same time span. The limited time, which has expired between these meetings, and indeed of others, which feed into your deliberations and that of the Heads of Government, has serious implications for the machinery with responsibility for servicing your meetings, as indeed, it must also for you as Ministers with heavy portfolios. As the Community Organ with responsibility for overseeing the translation of policy into operational results, you may need to review this situation with a view to ensuring the most beneficial effects from our efforts accrue to the Community.

Today, Honourable Ministers, you are meeting among other things, to consider the issues comprising the agenda and other preparations for the Twenty-Fifth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community scheduled to be held in Grenada from 4-7 July. Many of the items on that Agenda are of such major significance for the future development of the Community and the welfare of its people, that nothing but significant progress would suffice. Indeed, one may well conclude that, once again, the Community is at a critical cross-road.

Your task today is consistent with the provisions of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, which confers on this Council, the statutory responsibility to function as a Preparatory body for the meetings of the Conference. The quality of your deliberations, decisions and recommendations will most certainly therefore, have a direct bearing on, and set the tone for the outcome of the meeting in Grenada, and by extension, the future progress of the Community.

Perhaps it is therefore a good thing that this meeting of Heads of Government is taking place in Grenada, for Honourable Ministers, it should not escape our notice that in addition to its undoubted beauty, and the customary warm hospitality of its people, Grenada, and Grand Anse in particular, has a historic place in the annals of our history as a Regional integration movement. The birth of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, the new impetus for the Caribbean Court of Justice and the seeds for the improved governance arrangements within the Community - issues which are all before us today in one form or the other - all had their genesis in those ground-breaking decisions taken at the Tenth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government held in Grand Anse, Grenada in 1989. And who knows, perhaps the magic of Grand Anse might serve yet again to intensify and accelerate the process of regional integration.

Hon. Ministers, this Meeting of the Community Council is also being held immediately following the Seventeenth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED). Over the past two days, in this very room, that Council met on a number of issues of great significance to our region's development, some of which will be before you for consideration, for onward transmission to the Heads of Government, for their resolution. Pre-eminent among the subjects on that Council's agenda was agriculture, a vital sector for improving the quality of life of the people of the Caribbean Community.

A number of critical issues, emanating from the workings of the various organs of the Community have found their way on your Agenda today. They include the current situation in our sister state of Haiti, the mobilization of resources in the fight against HIV/AIDS and the establishment of the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Medical and Other Health Professionals. The issues related to HIV/AIDS and the Accreditation Authority emerged from the Report of the Tenth Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) on Health, Sustainable Development and the Environment; and call for urgent consideration in the context of the UN Millennium Development Goals and the Nassau Declaration that, "The Health of the Region is the Wealth of the Region".

Also, as we seek to deepen our integration process, culture - the pulsating heartbeat of a vibrant Caribbean people -emerges in relation to efforts towards a "New CARIFESTA". This issue arose from the Special Meeting of the COHSOD of Ministers of Culture, and on which you are being invited to bring to bear your collective perspective.

Honourable Ministers, I briefly referred at the beginning of these remarks to the burdens placed on the machinery for servicing the process of Community development and integration. A significant part of that burden falls on the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community. Certain matters relevant to that Body, must necessarily be brought to your attention at this meeting which would require your understanding and in due course, hopefully your sympathetic consideration.

Honourable Ministers, to undertake the many onerous tasks which constitute the responsibilities of this Body, the Community Council, it may be necessary to find a moment to give consideration to its own modus operandi. Your lot is not an easy one, and much rides on the success of your deliberations in regard to the future development of our Community. It is for that reason that the Secretariat has suggested that you may wish to consider a certain course of action with a view to determining how to strengthen your capacity as the second principal Organ of the Community, and the one responsible for supervising the conversion of policy into action. By way of example, I cannot fail to recall the strong advocacy by many of you for the urgent introduction of technological advancements to allow short meetings such as this to take place by video-conferencing. I can assure you that everything within the power of the Secretariat is being done to that end.

Honourable Ministers, I know, however that you are not daunted by the formidable task at hand, and I dare say, I know how eager you must be to get down to business. It is against this background, that I therefore invite Minister Knowlson Gift, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago, our host, to make a few remarks as we open this Fourteenth Meeting of the Community Council of Ministers.