Apart from the selection and fortunes of the West Indies Cricket team, there is no other issue that evokes, in this region, a richer, more sustained, more fierce, and more misplaced commentary than the purposes and workings of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.

In both instances, the debate seems to be inspired by the desire of the people of the Caribbean for the region and its institutions to succeed, and the unwillingness therefore to accept any departure from full effort and best practice.

In a year when the Caribbean Community is celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Community’s Heads of Government, as well as the Trade and Finance Ministers and senior officials will culminate a series of meetings in Jamaica in June and July with the Twenty Fourth Regular meeting of the Heads of Government in Montego, 2-5 July 2003.

Grenada will host the fifth distinguished lecture as part of the celebrations to commemorate the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Dr. Compton Bourne, President of the Caribbean Development Bank, will deliver the lecture. It is entitled A Caribbean Community for All and will be held at the Norton Hall on 25th June 2003 commencing at 7_00p.m.

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA – A meeting to prepare CARIFORUM member states for the Fifth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference, September 10 to 14, in Cancun, Mexico, came to a close today. The meeting, entitled_ Caribbean Region Pre- Cancun Meeting, was held June 16 to 19; organized by the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM), in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Netherlands-based ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Co-operation (CTA).

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA – United States Trade Representative Robert Zoellick convened an informal meeting of Trade Ministers, from selected Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) countries, in Maryland, June 12, 2003. Ministers from thirteen countries attended, drawn from all regions of the hemisphere. The main focus of discussion was on the goals of the FTAA and the core elements needed to achieve economic success and enhance political support for the FTAA.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) extends its warmest congratulations to Senator the Honourable Julian Hunte, OBE, Minister of External Affairs, International Trade and Civil Aviation of Saint Lucia on his recent election as President of the 58th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA – CARIFORUM member states’ senior officials and experts, with responsibility for trade, and specialists from regional and international bodies are meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The four-day meeting will prepare the region for the Fifth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico, September 10 to 14. The Ministerial Conference marks the half-way mark for Doha Agenda negotiations launched in Doha, Qatar, November 2001.

The Caribbean Court of Justice in its continued Public Education Programme, on the 22-23 May, 2003 launched its public education programme in Haiti.

Haiti is the newest Member State embraced as a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

The launch and first round of the education programme in Haiti, targeted the Judiciary and Magistracy.

The Haitian Judiciary was given the opportunity to discuss the CCJ in the context of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

My presence here today as Prime Minister is the consequence of an electoral choice that is without precedent in the post-independence history of my country.

It focuses my mind on the fact that we live in unprecedented times – in a world caught up with difficult and dangerous new tensions, and confronted with blistering and bewildering change that makes it often very difficult for our people to see the future.