Mr. Chairman – the Honourable Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and Attorney General of Belize
Other Honourable Ministers
Your Excellencies Ambassadors to the Caribbean Community
Deputy Secretary-General and other members of the Executive Management of the CARICOM Secretariat
Distinguished Delegates
Representatives of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen

As Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), I welcome you all to this Twenty-Third Meeting of the Community Council of Ministers.

In doing so, allow me to extend a very special welcome to you, the Honourable Wilfred Elrington, as you take the chair for the first time of this vital Community Organ – one of only two classified as Principal Organs of the Community – the other being the Conference of Heads of Government. I pledge on behalf of the Secretariat and myself, our full support to you during the term of Office, and extend our best wishes in your critical leadership role in the building of our Community.

Hon. Ministers, your role as Members of the Community Council - the strategic hub of the Community - is as important today, if not more so than it has ever been in the history of our integration process. Since you last met in June 2008, the world is a totally different place due to a financial and economic meltdown that has impacted the globe and shows no sign of abating soon.

Some of the best minds in the world have been engaged in searching for solutions to the Global problem. We too in our Community have similarly been engaged in searching for the best method of protecting our Community and its Member States from the worst effects of this crisis. Indeed this was a central issue on the Agenda of the Bureau of Heads of Government at its Meeting as early as 22 November.

Last Thursday, 29 January, at its meeting in Barbados, the Council for Finance and Planning took further action and established a Task Force to develop regional strategies for mitigating the effects of the crisis on CARICOM Member States. This was a clear sign that the Ministers had taken to heart, the injunction by the Chairman of CARICOM, the Honourable Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize in his New Year message, that this year, 2009, must be a year of action for the Community.

The recommendations of the Task Force will surely need to be considered by the Community Council, given its central role in Community decision-making. This would be in keeping with the provisions of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas which specify that the Community Council - the second highest Organ in the Community structure of governance “shall in accordance with the policy directions established by the Conference, have primary responsibility for the development of Community strategic planning and coordination in the areas of economic integration, functional cooperation and external relations.”

Since you last met, our Community has taken a giant step with the launching of the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) - a critical instrument to assist Disadvantaged Countries, Regions and Sectors of the Community as we move closer towards the realisation of the CSME. The Chief Executive Officer of the Fund has assumed duties, and its Board has commenced operations. We now look forward to the earliest possible provision of assistance to eligible countries, regions and sectors.

Additionally since you last met, Honourable Ministers, the world has also witnessed the election of the first ever African-American President of the United States – its 44th - and all that that has brought in the way of change, hope and expectation, not only in America but across the world.

For us in CARICOM, we have conveyed our congratulations, our best wishes, and our principal concerns to the new President. We look forward to early engagement with the new US Administration on those matters. Today Ministers, you will get a first look at a proposed strategic approach to the Community’s relations with the United States under its new administration.

Mr. Chairman, one of the principal tasks of this Council is to approve the Budget and Work Programme of the CARICOM Secretariat. Seized as we are of the depth of the global financial and economic downturn and of its certain impact on our countries, we have taken the brave decision, despite an inflation rate of some 8%, not to request any increase in the budget for 2009 over that of 2008. We are determined to strive to do as much as we can, with the level of resources made available to us in 2008. This, of course, raises serious questions regarding the issue of new mandates.

Mr. Chairman, before leaving this subject, I wish to take the opportunity to extend my thanks and appreciation to Mr. Ted Lewis, Chairman (of Antigua and Barbuda) and the other Members of the Budget Committee, who, notwithstanding the relative modesty of the Secretariat’s Budget request, did subject that request to the most intense scrutiny before endorsing and recommending it for your approval. We wish to thank them all for their thoroughly professional work and promise to follow-up on the many recommendations they made for enhancing our Budget and Work Programme process.

Honourable Ministers, you also have before you a status report on the Secretariat’s strategic plan for 2009-2013. This is important in this crucial period in the life of the Community, as we seek to establish the Single Economy and consolidate the Single Market. The Secretariat, as the principal administrative organ of the Community must, like this Council, be positioned to play a decisive role in ensuring that the objectives of the Community are attained.

The decision of Heads of Government “to park” for the time being the long discussed issue of the establishment of a Commission-type mechanism has significant implications for the nature of the tasks of those staff members of the Secretariat charged with representational responsibilities – the Assistant Secretaries-General and above. Much more field interaction, not only with member Governments but other sectors of the Community, especially the private sector and labour would now fall to be undertaken by this level of staff.

Honourable Ministers, in the next two months, our Heads of Government will be involved in two Summits. The first is the Twentieth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community to be held in Belize on 12-13 March. The plans and the provisional agenda for that meeting are before you today for your consideration and approval.

Just over a month later, the Fifth Summit of the Americas will be held in Trinidad and Tobago and that country’s delegation to this meeting will no doubt provide an update on the latest developments. This prestigious event is being held in the Caribbean for the first time and in a CARICOM Member State. The Secretariat reiterates its readiness to assist in this enterprise wherever it can.

Mr. Chairman, Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen, in keeping with our action theme, I will conclude these brief remarks so that your deliberations can get underway. In doing so, however, I must underscore the importance of the role and responsibility assigned to this Council. With Member States and the Secretariat, you share the responsibility of helping among other things, to dispel much of the doom and gloom regarding the future of our Community. For some, the glass is never half full but only half empty; for others, to search for unity is itself a sign of disunity; and for others, differences of position among Member States are seen as cause for alarm. But as I have said before, the process of integration is not for the faint of heart. Thankfully Mr. Chairman I discern none such among you. It is crucial therefore, not only that you act, but that your voices be heard as well as to where you stand on the various issues critical to the future of our Community.

I thank you.