‘We have to build a resilient Caribbean Community’- CARICOM Secretary-General

Remarks by the Secretary-General of CARICOM, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque at the Opening of the 31st Intersessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, Bridgetown, Barbados 18 February 2020

Madame Chair, Heads of Government, the scope of our Agenda illustrates the breadth of issues which we, as a Community, must address to further consolidate our integration and to position ourselves advantageously in an increasingly complex and challenging global arena. – CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque

Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados and Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community;

Honourable Allen Chastanet, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia and Out-going Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community;

Other CARICOM Heads of Government and Heads of Delegation;

Honourable Francois-Phillipe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada;

Baroness Patricia Scotland, Secretary-General of The Commonwealth;

Heads of Regional Institutions;

Representatives of the Private Sector, Labour, Civil Society and our Youth;

Members of the Diplomatic Corps;

Representatives of the Media;

People of the Caribbean Community.

I welcome you all, as we gather in Barbados for the Thirty-First
Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government. As
always, the Barbadian hospitality and efficiency have ensured both that
the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
family and our guests are well looked after, and arrangements for the
conduct of the meeting are in good order. I am sure that all will join
me in thanking the Government and People of Barbados, led by the
Chairperson of the Caribbean Community, the Honourable Mia Amor Mottley.

Prime Minister, welcome to the Chair and I look forward to continue
working closely with you in advancing the goals of our integration
process.

In the last six months of 2019, the Community and I have had the
considerable benefit of guidance from the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia,
Honourable Allen Chastanet, the Outgoing Chair. I thank you, Prime
Minister, for the sterling efforts you have been making to promote and
defend the Region’s interests, in particular, with respect to the need
for funding to enhance our resilience, climate change and the challenges
we face with blacklisting.

Also, your ready response, along with Prime Minister Mottley, to
visit The Bahamas and demonstrate the Community’s support after the
devastation of Hurricane Dorian was a significant display of your
leadership.

I must welcome to the Conference of Heads of Government, for the
first time, the Honourable Joseph Farrell, the Premier of Montserrat.
Premier, congratulations on your victory at the polls and we look
forward to your views on the issues confronting our integration
movement.

Madame Chair, Heads of Government, the scope of our Agenda
illustrates the breadth of issues which we, as a Community, must address
to further consolidate our integration and to position ourselves
advantageously in an increasingly complex and challenging global arena.

Whether it is the imperative of making significant progress with the
Single Market and Economy; securing our financial sector; safeguarding
our fiscal sovereignty; enhancing our technological capability and
capacity; protecting the health and security of our people; expanding
our foreign outreach – it is with one goal in mind. We have to build a
resilient Caribbean Community.

To do so necessitates an all-inclusive approach that embraces the
skills, talents and resources of the public and private sectors, labour,
civil society, youth and indeed the entire society. It also requires
co-operation and assistance from our friends in the International
Community. These combined and co-ordinated efforts will serve us in good
stead, as we strive to build that resilience to combat the challenges
that we face, most particularly, the existential threat of climate
change.

The decision by our Heads of Government to engage regularly with the
private sector, labour and civil society is an indication of our
determination to be more inclusive in our deliberations and to embed and
all-society approach to our development efforts.

And today, we have included representatives of the CARICOM Youth Ambassador Corps.

How can we benefit from the CSME and successfully conduct trade
negotiations with third countries without the involvement of the private
sector and labour?

How can we maximise the use of technology for our development without the innovation and dynamism of the youth?

How can we combat the scourge of crime and violence without the input of ideas and actions from civil society?

And we all must do our part to stave off the epidemic of chronic
Non-Communicable Diseases and the spread of the global viruses that
threaten to engulf us.

The latest of these, the coronavirus, has been deadly, claiming more
than a thousand lives globally so far and proving difficult to contain.
There are no cases in CARICOM.

Although the World Health Organisation WHO has deemed the risk to
the Caribbean to be low, we adopted a pro-active approach and convened
an Emergency Meeting of the Ministers of Health on the virus, with
participation from the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the
Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) the CARICOM Implementation
Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) and the Caribbean Disaster
Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). The Regional Security System has
also played a critical role in transporting samples for laboratory
testing at CARPHA.

I must commend the collaboration that is taking place, as another
example of the co-ordination that is required in addressing some of the
challenges to our integration process and to have a positive sustained
impact on the lives of our citizens.

The discussions over the next two days come against a background of
global uncertainty, including the increasing threats to multilateralism,
the spread of tensions and volatility arising from unresolved conflicts
and the acceleration of the devastating effects of climate change.

These issues demand that we act collectively to overcome the hurdles
that confront us. We face an increasingly hostile international
environment which demands more than ever that we come together to secure
and promote our interests as a Community.

I thank you.