(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) 12 January 2010 will forever be etched on the minds and hearts of the people of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as the day when their brothers and sisters in Haiti were devastated by a cataclysmic earthquake.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) As the first Anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake which rocked Haiti on 12 January 2010 looms, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is continuing its steady and multi-pronged support to this Member State.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Arising from consultations held in Kingston, Jamaica, January 5-7, the Government of Haiti and representatives of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) agreed on several key project proposals designed to strengthen Haiti’s institutional and technical capacity in three priority areas_ housing and settlement development; physical and environmental planning; and infrastructure development and coordination.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Caribbean Community (CARICOM) officials will meet with their Haitian counterparts and officers of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in Kingston, Jamaica, January 5-7, 2011, in a high-level and broad-based meeting with critical focus on building institutional capacity in Haiti, and development project-planning, towards assisting in the recovery of the earthquake-torn French Speaking CARICOM Member State.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) As the first anniversary of earthquake which rocked Haiti on 12 January 2010 approaches, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) His Excellency Sir Edwin Carrington is bemoaning the slow disbursement of the aid promised by the international community to support the reconstruction in the French Speaking CARICOM Member State.

​Excellency, today’s Ceremony accrediting you, High Commissioner Brummell, as your country’s Plenipotentiary Representative to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is a notable and important one. You are the second Representative of the United Kingdom to be accredited to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Your predecessor High Commissioner Fraser Wheeler, based as he was in Georgetown, Guyana, had a close and active relationship with the CARICOM Secretariat. You, Excellency the first under the new UK Government, we are advised will be based in Barbados.

Your Excellency Stefan Schlüter;

Deputy Secretary-General and other Members of the Executive Management Committee; Other Members of Staff of the Secretariat

Excellency, it is always a pleasure for me to welcome the representative of a development partner country of the Caribbean Community to the Headquarters of the Community. This Ceremony, today, to accredit you as your country’s third Plenipotentiary Representative to the Caribbean Community is a short but pleasant pause, in the intense three days of meetings that are being held here at the CARICOM Secretariat.

​Welcome to you all! I am particularly pleased to make special reference to the Honourable Ministers of Trinidad and Tobago, of Barbados and of Suriname who I am advised are attending their first meeting of COTED. Honourable Ministers, we are delighted to have you as members of this august Council and we look forward to your unique contribution.