Colleague Heads
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Representatives of Local, Regional and other International Agencies
Representatives of Academia
Members of the Media
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a pleasure to address this Regional Heads of Government Summit on Chronic and non-Communicable Diseases. I wish to extend fraternal greetings to my colleagues Heads of CARICOM and warmly welcome one and all, including those academics and professional who are visitors to Trinidad and Tobago or for that matter to the Caribbean. I wish on behalf of my Caribbean colleagues to congratulate the Honorable Bruce Golding on his recent election victory and appoint as Prime Minister of Jamaica. We also wish to congratulate the Honourable Stephenson King on his appoint as Prime Minister of Saint Lucia. On a more sombre note, we join with the people of Saint Lucia in mourning the loss of Sir John Compton, who, they can be assured, will be sadly missed.

The Summit has its genesis in our decision as CARICOM Heads of Government in July 2006 to treat with the challenge of non-communicable diseases in our Region, after receiving a presentation on the gravity of the problem through the seminal report presented by the Caribbean Commission on Health and Development which was chaired by the very distinguished Sir George Alleyne.

That report, as many are aware, pointed to the fact that in our region five times as many people die from non-Communicable Diseases as from all the other illnesses combined. On the basis of available data, we were also advised that if these diseases were to be properly treated, the combined economic burden of diabetes and high blood pressure, for example, would be US$59.4M in the Bahamas, US$89.4M in Barbados, US$419.3M in Jamaica and US$496.7M in Trinidad and Tobago.

Apart from the unfathomable pain, suffering and personal losses individuals experience through the passing of their loved ones, at the economic and social levels, the Caribbean has great cause for concern, and, given the statistics, Trinidad and Tobago has even greater cause for apprehension.

This is an issue to which the government of Trinidad and Tobago, as indeed governments across the Region, has been tremendously responsive. Some of you may recall that last year this Government convened a workshop on September 15, 2006, as an immediate response to the recommendations in the Report of the Commission on Health and Development, and as a demonstration of the urgency we attach to health as it pertains to our nation.

Further to this, on the basis of the very illuminating discussions at that workshop, including that by a panel of experts chaired by Sir George Alleyne, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago decided to take some necessary steps to reduce the spread of these diseases.

Inter alia, our National Budget for fiscal year 2007 carried increases in the taxes on tobacco and alcohol, commodities which were deemed among the root causes for the development of these chronic non-communicable diseases.

We also begun immediately to make significant adjustments to the school meals provided for the children of our nation. In respect of school curricula, we begun also to place great emphasis on physical education. We have also been seeking to bring about far greater physical participation in sport across the population. Others in the Caribbean family of nations have introduced or are at this time contemplating the implementation of similar measures.

As governments, we are all cognizant of the fact that at times it becomes necessary and inescapable to apply seemingly harsh doses of medicine, if we are to appropriately address or correct any social illness. When therefore the government of Trinidad and Tobago took the opportunity to set alcohol and tobacco further away from the reach of the population, there were many who did not then nor even now fully understand the choices before us. We did it on the basis of what had to be done in the interest of the national community. What is more we recognize clearly, that in treating with the problem, additional measures and strategies must be implemented.

Even so, as a government we must be cognizant of the need to further evidence the necessity for various interventions, as a basis for the formulation of strategies and for the involvement of our societies in whose interest the measures are targeted and without whose participation there cannot be the required level of success.

In a word, we have a mandate to determine the full extent of the challenge and danger to our Region, in terms of health cost and the implications for the development of our societies. We must develop a clear understanding of those factors which place our citizens at risk, and which can be favourably modified as far as possible within our present environment. We must determine what immediate changes and adjustments can be made and how to shape and achieve them, in the short and longer term.

It is against such a background that we meet here today. We are looking to develop a clear appreciation of the real and present danger posed by these diseases. This summit will therefore examine the financial and other burdens posed by the high prevalence of chronic non-Communicable Diseases among our populations in the Region. More importantly, it will establish and agree on the regional approach to the prevention and control of these diseases, and, within this, will identify those solutions which can be implemented in our respective countries as a matter of critical importance.

When we consider that in our Region the mortality rate from non-Communicable Diseases is ten times higher than that of HIV and AIDS, the personal and social costs combined with the financial implications are sufficient and necessary justifications for convening this Summit. More fundamentally, there is a call for focused policy-oriented effective, result-reproducing decisions and actions. These are required now.

We are dealing with an enormous challenge in terms of the necessity for adjustments in our lifestyles, the kinds of reinforcement that must come from our education system. Then there is the nature of the health infrastructure which must be developed to accelerate the management and control of these non-Communicable Diseases to ensure early detection and treatment, and the need for uninterrupted provision of medication for those financially challenged. The effort requires collective Regional imagination and co-operation.

This Summit has also brought together all those who regionally and internationally must partner with our governments, so that together we can adequately take on the challenge. A lot of decisive follow-up action is to be expected. We must set the basis for no less.

At the last Heads of Government Conference in Barbados in July 2007, it was decided by Heads of Government that they would pursue Functional Cooperation as a basis for achieving our Community goals and aspirations. This Summit provides us with another opportunity to achieve our goals on such a basis. Let us ensure that in the end it will be another great moment in our Region. Let us leave this Summit with a comprehensive plan for the reduction and management of non-Communicable Diseases in our Community.

Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much. May God bless you. May God bless our nations.