Good morning Dear colleagues from Haiti, CIDA and the CARICOM Secretariat. A special good morning to our colleagues in the CSME Unit in Barbados who have joined us by videoconference.

It is with sincere pleasure that I welcome the delegations of the Government of Haiti and of the Government of Canada represented by CIDA to the CARICOM Secretariat, headquartered here in Guyana. I know that the journey was not without its challenges for our Haitian colleagues. I am therefore pleased that we can all be gathered here this morning for this very first meeting of the Tripartite Committee on the Haiti/CSME project component of the wider Contribution Arrangement entered into between the Government of Canada and the CARICOM Secretariat on 15 October 2007. This Committee has the critical role of providing strategic oversight of the project.

Colleagues from CIDA and from Haiti, you will no doubt have been struck by the number of Caribbean Community Secretariat staff present here this morning. Indeed, because this is the first meeting of the Committee, there is some curiosity to better understand the operational and oversight modalities of the programme in which they will be involved in different ways. I will shortly ask that they be allowed to introduce themselves.

This CSME/Haiti project is timely. It is part of the wider effort of the international community to help Haiti in its own attempt at social, political, economic and institutional development. The objective of this programme is to help Haiti strengthen its capacity to function effectively within the regional economic integration process of the Caribbean Community encapsulated in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). As will be seen in the Project Implementation Plan and the review of the Annual Work Plan to be considered during our meeting, the Haiti/CSME Project fits neatly into the institutional and capacity building aspects of Haiti’s renovation. Haiti will require much more assistance. Thankfully, a number of countries recognized as international development partners and here I would like to single out Canada, have demonstrated their willingness to come to Haiti’s assistance.

The project seeks to contribute in some small measure to the huge renovation task underway in Haiti which embraces all areas of the country’s functioning and which is straining the society’s scarce human and institutional resources.

The Government of Canada must be commended for the continuing support and attention it provides to Haiti, and the pride of place it has granted to this sister CARICOM country in its cooperation programmes. The Caribbean Community takes advantage of this opportunity to once again thank the Government of Canada and its cooperation arm, CIDA, for the financial support it has granted for the Community to undertake this necessary programme of technical assistance that we will be reviewing today.

Thank you.

Contact: piu@caricom.org