It is my pleasure on behalf of the Caribbean Community, to welcome you, Excellency, to the CARICOM Secretariat for this Accreditation Ceremony, the first for the year 2006.

Today, Ambassador Ohlraun, I am pleased on behalf of the Community, to receive your credentials as Germany’s Plenipotentiary Representative to the Caribbean Community. Your accreditation to the Community ushers in a new and deeper relationship between the Government and People of our Community and the Government and People of Germany.

The Community counts on You, Excellency, to ensure that the spirit of the People of the Community is conveyed to the People of Germany and to encourage greater contact among our people, whether it be for sport and pleasure or for business, the opportunities for which many exist in our Region. Indeed I feel certain that the people of Germany will get a fuller appreciation of the spirit of the people of this Community when the SOCA WARRIORS – the team of one of its Member States, Trinidad and Tobago, participates in the Football World Cup in Germany later this year.

The date of today’s auspicious ceremony augurs well for the future of CARICOM–Germany relations. This month and this year bear witness to historic firsts for both CARICOM and Germany. January 2006 sees CARICOM and Germany formally acknowledging the friendly relations which have for some time existed. Germany begins its first year under the leadership of its first female Chancellor. CARICOM officially launched its Single Market on 1 January.

It is not too much to hope that the festivity and sense of celebration, the optimistic expectations and determination inherent in any new year, characterize this new chapter in German-CARICOM relations. Indeed ladies and gentlemen- there is absolutely no reason why it should not be so.

CARICOM’s relationship with Germany is already based on solid technical cooperation. The German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) has provided some USD2.2 million, in assistance inter alia, to the CARICOM Youth Ambassador’s Programme (CYAP), the Technical Vocational and Educational Training Programme (TVET) and the co-financing of the Caribbean Renewable Energy Resources Project (CREDP), this last located here at the Secretariat.

The German Government also replenished in 2004 to the tune of 250,000 euros, a Study Expert Fund to finance the secondment of special experts, preparation of studies and procurement of inputs in fields as varied as environmental protection, conservation of resources, economic promotion, vocational training, health, population, diet, organisation and management consulting. This Fund expired just last month, 31 December 2005. Perhaps its renewal would be an appropriate way of marking today’s historic step in closer relations.

An Agreement between the German Reconstruction Loan Corporation - Kreditanstalt fir Wiederaufbau (KfW) and the Secretariat under the coordination of the CARICOM/Pan Caribbean Coordinating Unit in the area of HIV/AIDS was also signed in November of 2004 - a welcome help in a field of critical importance to CARICOM.

As the Community enters into a new exciting phase of its maturing as an integration movement, it looks to its friends for support. As one of the founding members of the world’s most advanced regional integration exercise, the European Union whose progress has influenced and inspired our own integration process, Germany’s friendship and support will continue to be invaluable to the Caribbean Community. The potential for cooperation is enormous - from education to scientific research and from culture to trade and sport. The cooperation undertaken thus far between Germany and CARICOM represents, ladies and gentlemen, the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

With that perspective Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to close by extending to Germany the Community’s expressions of appreciation for the commitment shown to the Region thus far, and the hope and indeed expectation that this year will mark the beginning of a diligent exploration and exploitation of the potential for greater cooperation inherent in this relationship.

To you, Dr. Ohlraun, the warmest of Caribbean welcomes.