REMARKS DELIVERED BY
HIS EXCELLENCY, EDWIN CARRINGTON, SECRETARY GENERAL
OF THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY
ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF THE
THIRTIETH MEETING OF THE CONFERENCE OF HEADS OF GOVERNMENT
OF THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY
NATIONAL CULTURAL CENTRE
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA

As Secretary-General, it gives me a special pleasure to welcome you to the Headquarters country of the Caribbean Community and to the Thirtieth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, the Supreme Authority of the Community. In welcoming distinguished visiting Heads of Government and other delegates, I can attest to the generous hospitality that you will be receiving while in Guyana, the Secretariat Staff having been its appreciative beneficiaries over the life of our Community. I also take this opportunity to thank the Government and People of Guyana for the excellent arrangements that have been put in place for the conduct of this Meeting.

Permit me as I begin these remarks to extend congratulations to the Honourable Baldwin Spencer whose recent victory at the polls, secured on the very day of the Twentieth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference last March, ensured a second term of office for his party. Honourable Prime Minister your commitment to the integration process which was so amply displayed during your first term, will, I am sure only be surpassed by that of your second term. Congratulations again!

Heads of Government, distinguished delegates ladies and Gentlemen, we are at a juncture which calls for the most purposeful leadership of our Community. Aware as we all are of the outstanding qualities of His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana, I am confident that in our new Chairman the Community will continue to enjoy that quality of leadership.

In welcoming the new Chairman, I must also pay tribute to the dedicated and insightful leadership of the immediate past Chairman, the Honourable Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize, for his dedicated and eloquent promotion of the interests of the Community. On all our behalf, I extend our most heartfelt appreciation for his outstanding service during his tenure.

As we commence this Thirtieth Meeting of the Conference, there is perhaps none of the previous twenty-nine which has been as celebrated as the Tenth, held at Grand Anse, Grenada in 1989. In the 20 years that have elapsed since then, the Community has been engaged, in large measure, in attempting to fulfil the lofty ambitions of the Agenda set by that Meeting in the Grand Anse Declaration and Work Programme for the Advancement of the Integration Process.

In setting the stage for the pursuit of that Work Programme, this is what the leaders stated in the preamble of that Declaration:

“We, the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community inspired by the spirit of cooperation and solidarity among us are moved by the need to work expeditiously together to deepen the integration process and strengthen the Caribbean Community in all of its dimensions to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by the changes in the global economy.”

Mr. Chairman, Heads of Government, people of the Caribbean Community, that spirit of co-operation and solidarity, that need to work expeditiously together, that need to thereby deepen the integration process and strengthen the Caribbean Community in all its dimensions is today as urgent, if not more so, than it was at that time - 20 years ago!

The challenges that those visionary leaders confronted then and sought to overcome have, if anything, intensified. And though the world has changed significantly since then and the instruments they may have resorted to may need to be reviewed, and even changed, that objective of responding to the challenges together, and no less importantly, grasping the opportunities, has not.

Indeed though the current environment is marked by the most severe global economic and financial crisis of modern times, to quote the distinguished Prime Minister of Jamaica, “let us not waste a good crisis.” For waste we cannot afford.