It is a wonderful feeling, as Prime Minister of Barbados, to be in a position to welcome you, and to preside over a Conference in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Fear not. I will not take over. It is not the Flying Fish Season.

I offer a special welcome to two Prime Ministerial Colleagues who are attending their first Summit after recent election to office. They are here obviously to participate fully in these important proceedings, but also surely to cause those of us who too soon have to face the polls to draw confidence and strength from the superior example they have set.

We are determined to make our Region succeed, and to do so, in large and increasing measure, by drawing upon the spirit of cooperation that binds us in the form of our regional integration process.

For our Region to succeed, the actions and programmes that we promote must make a fundamental and decisive difference to the wellbeing and the lives of our people in the course of their ordinary and daily business.

And the regional integration movement itself functions best as an instrument of our progress when it serves to add great value to our individual domestic programmes for the betterment of our people.

A Conference of this nature therefore meets the highest test of relevance and urgency.

I have absolutely no doubt that the quite considerable effort we have made over the past two decades to refashion our domestic economy into the CSME will yield an impressive dividend for the people of our Region.

Nothing must deter us from continuing to build the new regional economy that is to be the CSME, and from seeing it through to its successful completion. We can and must make parallel gains on the social front.

Hence, at our recent Summit in Barbados, we recognised and committed ourselves to meeting the challenge of strengthening our programme of regional cooperation in the social sectors and in the provision of common services, where great potential dividends await us in the form of the betterment of the lives of our people.

This Conference with the theme, “Stemming the Tide of Non-Communicable Diseases in the Caribbean,” surely must signal the absolute seriousness of the Leaders of the Region to make functional cooperation matter more in the daily lives of our people.

Non-communicable diseases – cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension, obesity and some cancers – are now the leading causes of death of our people. The prevalence of these diseases in the Caribbean is the worst in the Americas. It is clear that we are failing to properly control the factors which engender these diseases.

It is also clear that despite valiant efforts at the domestic level, a coordinated regional partnership and programme is now required if we are to make the significant advances required.

Already, over half of our health expenditure meets the costs of treating NCDs. These costs are projected to spiral, at a time when we face competing claims for our limited resources.

Failure to act can imperil our very lives, not to mention the future of the Community as we know it.

As Heads of Government, we are positioned to influence some of the critical factors contributing to the high incidence of Non-Communicable Diseases, such as limited access to appropriate health care and healthy foods. Indeed, the Caribbean Commission on Health and Development has recommended that regional Governments seek to improve access to better nutrition and health care for all our people. That is a priority we cannot ignore.

In addition, our Region must, as outlined for this Summit identify the appropriate mechanism for the coordination of efforts for all our territories, including our Associate Members, who are keen to participate in our efforts at cooperation. Presenting a single call for reduction in NCDs via our media, programmes for our schools, work places and health institutions, and a single research unit to avoid duplication costs can all serve to meet our goal of reducing the incidence of these diseases.

We have much experience to draw upon from our Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP). Our international partners in PAHO, the US Agency for International Development, the British Department for International Development (DFID), the Canadian International Agency and the European Commission joined with our regional Bodies, CAREC and UWI, to inform the public on HIV and AIDS and speed access to care and treatment for persons living with HIV and AIDS. I envisage that a similar level of coordination, encompassing all our regional and health agencies will be relied upon to ensure that our response to these debilitating diseases is decisive and effective.

In Barbados, our National Chronic Disease Commission is fully functional, with its emphasis on health promotion through strong linkages with key public entities, a comprehensive approach to research, monitoring and evaluation. We are however in no doubt that the costly complications, morbidity and mortality produced by this epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases can only be reduced by a comprehensive regional approach.

We are represented here to day to lend our full support to yet another regional initiative which will make a substantive difference to the well-being of our people.

As Chairman of the Conference of Heads, I wish to thank and to congratulate my colleague Head, the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis for his sterling leadership on this and other matters falling to his portfolio. I wish to thank all the Institutions and individuals who have helped to plan and who will participate in this Meeting, and the Government of Trinidad and Trinidad for agreeing to host it.

This nation has lent the name of one of its most famous places to be as the symbol by which we most identify our integration movement.

I trust that this Meeting will come, like the Meeting at Chaguaramas over 30 years ago to be remembered as another defining moment in Caribbean development and that our people will thank us for gathering here to do the important business at hand.

Let us therefore to the task.