The convening of this Forum is a tangible expression of the commitment of the CARICOM Secretariat to providing support to Member States in the discharge of their obligations under the Revised Treaty.

We in the Secretariat, as I'm sure you in your various capacities in the public and private sectors, are constantly assailed by public criticism, that not enough is known about CARICOM, CARICOM issues in general, and the CSME in particular; that our public education programmes are not reaching the majority of the people is a criticism we have to accept.

The word-of-mouth feedback, as well as the commissioned studies to gauge public opinion and reaction to the programmes and strategies, underscore two major realities: Firstly, that the generic materials produced by the Secretariat intended for adoption and adaptation at the national level, represent a cost which the Secretariat cannot sustain, except with serious injections of considerable funds from donor resources. Secondly, that public education is a process which, given the uniqueness of our Community of Sovereign States, must be conducted in the national domain.

The public education strategy and products must be developed for a wide range of publics, it must have the cultural flavour of the audiences it is intended for, it must incorporate the speech patterns of those audiences, it must take account of the discrete technical interest groups in the public and private sector.

If we are to achieve these goals in an effective way, then the Government Information Service in each Member State must of necessity be the linchpin of this process of building awareness and disseminating information to support decision-making, and engender an easier transition to decision implementation.

The Third Meeting of Directors of GISs which took place in Barbados in October 2004, after a hiatus of about 7 years, made a number of recommendations with respect to upgrading national communications infrastructure, the urgency of restructuring the GISs to make them more technologically and administratively positioned to meet the emerging information challenges, and the need to develop collaborative mechanisms for networking among the Agencies.

It is against this background that the Secretariat is focusing its attention on the GISs, recognising the value of the sector as a vehicle to support public information and education initiatives that enhance the Community's vision of integration.

A visit to the JIS last December to see their restructuring process, triggered the conceptualization of the Forum. The challenge to the Secretariat was to give tangible expression to the concept, and when approached, Mrs. Tipling and her team readily embraced the idea to host the event, and lent their energies to all aspects of the planning.

The other side of the challenge was funding, and the Secretariat must acknowledge the significant contribution of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), through the funding arrangements of its CARICOM Capacity Development Programme (CCDP), which made it possible for us to ensure participation of not only Directors of Information from the Member States, but also Directors from the Associate Member States. And we'd certainly like to record our sincere appreciation of this level of support that CIDA has consistently provided for the Region.

We at the Secretariat take our partnership in this Forum seriously, and this is reflected in the team represented here, which includes the ASG, HSD, the Adviser, CSME, the Adviser, Communication, and Programme Managers whose combined range of experiences will meld with the considerable skills and expertise of the Directors of Information here today. Our anticipation is that the Forum will provide the opportunity for charting a direction for collaboration and cooperation among GISs and with the Secretariat, which will ultimately raise the bar on a sustainable public information and education process throughout the Region.