Press release 03/2005
( 5 January 2005)

Madam Chairman, Minister Maria Levens; Outgoing Chairman, Minister Elvin Nimrod; Honourable Ministers, Delegates, Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat, Members of the media:

I take this opportunity to extend to each of you my very best wishes for a happy 2005 filled with meaningful achievements and good health. To visiting Ministers and members of their delegations: welcome to Guyana and to the CARICOM Secretariat. I am confident that the next time I have the honour of welcoming you to the Secretariat, it will be in more spacious and salubrious surroundings.

Minister Levens, I welcome you to the Chair of the Community Council of Ministers and to the important tasks ahead, even as I thank Minister Nimrod of Grenada for his leadership during his term as Chair.

The year just started will be a decisive one for the Caribbean Community. It is the Year of the CARICOM Single Market, when we will move with confidence to a new and more mature stage on the road to regional economic integration. Leading this process will be the three Member States of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. They will declare their Single Market readiness by depositing their Instruments of Compliance on the occasion of the inauguration of our new Secretariat Headquarters on 19 February [2005].

This year too, we hope to take another major step forward in our Regional institutional arrangements when we inaugurate the Caribbean Court of Justice - a central pillar of the CSME.

Even as 2004 ended on a note that highlighted our vulnerability with devastating hurricanes, especially in Grenada and Cayman Islands; and earthquakes in Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago, 2005 has unfolded in a manner that reminds us that we are not alone in this regard. I use this opportunity to reiterate the condolences and solidarity, which CARICOM has already expressed to the Governments and peoples of the countries affected by the tsunami disaster in Asia, which also affected parts of coastal Africa. Ministers, you will no doubt avail yourselves of the opportunity at today's meeting to exchange views as well as to consider the Region's position on this matter.

To quote John Donne: "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manner of thy friends or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for thee."

We at the Secretariat have not been left untouched by this tragedy as one member of our staff - Mr. Tilak Pereira - lost three members of his family. I am sure that the Community Council joins me in extending sincere condolences to Mr. Pereira and his family, and observing a minute of silence in memory of those thousands who lost their lives in that disaster. As a mark of respect, the CARICOM standard will be flown at half-mast.

There is already evidence that 2005 will present us in CARICOM and at the Secretariat in particular, with a lot of important work. In this the first week of the year alone, we are hosting and servicing meetings of the officials and Ministers of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), a special encounter between COTED Ministers and new European Union Commissioner for Trade, Mr. Peter Mandelson and a Special Meeting of COFCOR, even as we conduct the important business of this Community Council.

The meeting with Mr. Mandelson is timely and important given the current negotiations for the reform of the EU banana regime and the challenges to the EU/ACP sugar protocol in the WTO. I do not need to remind you of the vital interests that are at stake here. These are matters with enormous implications for the economies and people of CARICOM Member States.

Our agenda for today's meeting is one of great significance and the successful completion of our work will in large measure determine the success of the Sixteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government to be held in Suriname 16-17 February [2005].

There are, among the issues before the Community Council, a number of important matters relating to our economic and social development. Among the important social issues are the implications of globalization for higher education in the Region and the challenges facing CARICOM states as they pursue the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN in 2000 - particularly the goals for education, poverty reduction and the control of HIV/AIDS. These issues, Madam Chair, and the decision we make on them, have a direct and immediate impact on the people of our Region.

In closing, I feel confident that the new year will provide us with the positive spirit and firm resolve necessary to advance the interest of our people in the many areas we must address in today's meeting. Again, I welcome you and invite Minister Levens to make her opening remarks.