Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Hon. Clayton Burgin;
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Patricia Martin;
Chief Education Officer Mr. Christopher Dennie and other officials of the Ministry of Education;
Principal of the St. Vincent Grammar School Mrs. Margaret Leacock, teacher Mrs. Sandra Bart-Peters and students;
Representatives of our sponsors: BANKS DIH Ltd, Guyana, BWIA - Mr. Leroy Wilson, Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Mr. Alphie Skerrette Country Manager of Caribbean Banking Corporation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on behalf of RBTT.
Mr. and Mrs. Dougan, and to the young man of the hour Mr. Kurt Dougan
Members of the Agency for Public Information
Friends and Colleagues of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen

A pleasant welcome!

We are here this afternoon to pay tribute to Mr. Kurt Dougan, of Ratho Mill, Kingstown, in recognition for his placing third in the CARICOM Book Cover Design Competition.

You may be aware that the CARICOM Secretariat has been preparing a text-book on CARICOM, entitled "Our Caribbean Community", which is intended to educate and inform our young persons about the history of the movement and major developments in our integration movement. The book will be published by Mr. Ian Randle Publishers of Jamaica.

The Book Cover Competition, which Kurt took part was conducted over the period 9 January to 23 February 2001, sought to select a design for the cover of the text-book from among the over 200 entries which were submitted from across our Community.

Mr. Andrew Davies, 23, a national of Jamaica, residing in Barbados captured the top prize, Ms. Tavernelle Wells, 18, of Trinidad and Tobago, placed second, third place, 16-year-old Kurt Dougan of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the fourth entry was captured by 15-year-old Donovan Daal of Suriname.

They were judged by a panel comprising Mr. Ricardo Redman, Chief Executive Officer, of Acutevision Inc, a Graphic Design Firm based in Barbados, Mr. Ian Randle, Founder and President of Ian Randle Publishers of Jamaica and yours truly. I can tell you that we were overwhelmed, and thrilled by the many excellent entries, which we reviewed. Not only was there a tremendous display of talent and imagination, there was also a clear demonstration, in many of the entries, of a knowledge, an understanding and a sense of "Caribbean-ness".

We found young Mr. Dougan's entry to be one of the more impressive and demonstrative in this regard. With such young people in our Community, we can take courage that the flag of regional integration will continue to fly and fly high.

I will be inviting Mr. Dougan to speak on his talent and vision in designing his entry to the competition. But before I do so, perhaps I can tell you briefly about our third-prize winner.

Young Mr. Dougan is in fact quite young, only sixteen years old, and is currently awaiting the results of his CXC examinations. I am informed that while art is one of the nine subjects in which he was examined, his focus is actually on the sciences. He is in fact planing to pursue a career in the field of Computer Programming, or, as a second choice, medicine. Evidently a versatile young man blessed with many talents.

This is not the first time that young Mr. Dougan's artistic skill has been recognised. He has taken part in and placed in other art competitions, including one on the Rights of the Child. But then, Kurt has had something of a head start - his mother tells us that he has been drawing since the age of three.

And now to the actual prizes. The Secretariat was very fortunate to have received very generous support from the private sector for the competition. Young Mr. Dougan will today receive the following prizes in recognition of his achievement:

A Toshiba laptop computer courtesy of Banks DIH of Guyana.

An airline ticket to Guyana, for four days and five nights, courtesy of BWIA West Indies Ltd, to visit the CARICOM Secretariat. Mr. Leroy Wilson a representative of BWIA, is here with us to present Mr. Dougan with his ticket.

Spending money for his trip to Guyana, courtesy of the Royal Bank Financial Services of Trinidad and Tobago. Mr. Alphie Skerrette, Country Manager of Caribbean Banking Corporation (CBC) of St. Vincent and the Grenadines will make this presentation on behalf of the Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.

Finally, Mr. Dougan will receive a copy of the book once published.

I wish to convey my sincere thanks and appreciation to all the sponsors for their generous support. To the talented Mr. Dougan I offer my heartiest congratulations on winning the third prize and wish him much success in his future endeavours .