The CARICOM Secretariat is pleased to receive representatives from the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation. Through our discussions today we are seeking to establish a firm footing for our relationship with the signing, by the Secretariat, of a Memorandum of Understanding [MOU]. The MOU will then be taken back to the Clinton Foundation, by its representative here today, for signature by its President. This MOU will lay the basis for collaboration and support as the Region seeks to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic which is threatening the social and economic fabric of our society.

HIV/AIDS represents the single most important challenge to well-being and development in the Caribbean region. Due to the scale, scope and complexities involved in addressing the situation, the Heads of Government have opted for a regional approach involving a significant number of regional and international partners under the Pan Caribbean Partnership. At this time the Partnership includes Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Caribbean Epidemiology Center (CAREC), the Caribbean Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (CRN+), the University of the West Indies (UWI), WHO, UNAIDS, Canadian International Development Agency, the European Union, the British Department for International Development and the United States Agency for International Development, to name a few. My apologies to any partner I may have inadvertently missed. It is therefore with the greatest pleasure that we welcome the representatives of the Clinton Foundation and invite them to work with us, to support us as the Caribbean Region seeks to address this crisis of global proportions.

The efforts of the Pan Caribbean Partnership are guided by the Regional Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS. One of the specific priority areas of this Regional Plan is the treatment and care for People Living With HIV/AIDS. In support of this, the region has been engaged in a process to negotiate access at affordable prices to the anti-retroviral drugs which are critical to the treatment of persons living with aids. This effort has been led by the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, the Dr. the Hon. Denzil Douglas, who has Quasi-cabinet responsibility for Health [including HIV/AIDS] and Human Resource Development in CARICOM.

So far, the efforts to negotiate access to these drugs have yielded positive results and the drug companies have agreed to make these drugs available to Caribbean nations at significantly reduced prices. But even at these reduced prices, these drugs which are so essential to treatment are still very costly - particularly when set against the real economic difficulties facing the countries of the region at this time. These difficulties were the subject of a Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government last week in St. Lucia. That Meeting agreed, among other things to the establishment of a Regional Stabilization Fund that would assist our Member States in addressing the economic difficulties and to provide early assistance to The Commonwealth of Dominica which has suffered from the collapse of its banana market and seen its Gross Domestic Product fall by, it is estimated up to 85% with consequences for the capacity of its Government to provide basic services.

Even as we speak, plans are in place for a high level meeting on Friday of this week to map out the early implementation of these decisions given the seriousness of the economic difficulties and the need to mobilize not only to address the short term fiscal and balance of payments problems, but also the long term transformation of our economies in the context of expanding global free trade and economic liberalization.

Suffice it to say that current economic circumstance constrains the ability of our countries to expand our capacity, operationalise our facilities and to procure the drugs and other technologies necessary to deal comprehensively and effectively with the HIV/AIDS crisis and its effects on our societies.

We are therefore very pleased that President Bill Clinton, a known supporter of the peoples of the Caribbean has decided to join us at this point in time when assistance is desperately needed.

As I understand, it President Clinton in his meeting with Hon. Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas in Barcelona did pledge to assist the Caribbean in the fight against HIV/AIDS through the pursuit of universal access to Antiretroviral drugs. This pledge was followed by a Meeting of the Clinton Foundation with Prime Minister Douglas in St Kitts on July 20, 2002 and is the reason for today's visit.

As President Bill Clinton himself said "…the Caribbean has cut a deal …it has a plan … but insufficient resources…Let's find out what is the deficit and go and get the money".

This I believe is your charge and we have every confidence that you are up to it. Let me therefore formally welcome you to the CARICOM Secretariat as we look forward to a solid and fruitful relationship.

Thank you.