Outgoing Chairman of the COTED
Other distinguished colleagues,
Excellencies,
Delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Please permit me to commence my brief remarks by expressing appreciation on behalf of all delegates to the Government of Guyana and the CARICOM Secretariat for the warm and splendid arrangements offered our delegations. It is always a pleasure to visit Georgetown, even if it is only for 48 hours.
The Seventh Ministerial Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development, gets underway tomorrow, 8th October, 1999 at the Secretariat's Headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana.
Ministers and officials will deliberate on several issues of importance to the Region, foremost among them being the status of moves towards the establishment of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy. In this regard they will focus on the progress towards the implementation of Protocols VIII and IX, the last of the instruments which seek to amend the Treaty of Chaguaramas.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is part of a team which will be hosting a Regional Workshop on Competition Law and Policy on 12 and 13 October, 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago.
The University of the West Indies(UWI), St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) are the other institutions behind the programme.
It is with deep sadness that I learnt of the passing on Monday, 4 October 1999, of Frank Rampersad, national of Trinidad and Tobago and committed citizen of the Caribbean Community.
Mr. President,
Distinguished delegates,
Mr President, we thank you for the opportunity to address this august chamber on a subject which spells life or death to the countries of our Region - the Caribbean.
Held as it was in Barbados - a founding Member State of the Caribbean Community - the 1994 SIDS Conference and the resultant Barbados Plan of Action are of particular significance to the Caribbean Community.
Since 1985, Caribbean countries have observed September 30 as Caribbean Youth Day. On those occasions the Region has organised a range of activities and programmes to mark the occasion and to promote the Region's Youth. These activities have involved schools, Youth-related organisations and the general public, and have been designed to showcase the attributes and achievements of the Region's young people and to highlight the critical issues embodied in specially selected themes.
The second session of the Assembly of Caribbean Community Parliamentarians (ACCP) will convene in Grenada on October 14, 1999.
His Excellency, the President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo was a welcome surprise guest at a ceremony on Wednesday morning at which members of staff of the CARICOM Secretariat remembered their colleague, Ms Silvana Jordan.
The President gave his personal reminiscences of his friend Silvana Jordan with whom he had attended Patrice Lumumba Friendship University in Moscow, Russia 16 years ago.
Ms Silvana Jordan, Senior Project Officer, Communications Unit at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat died in a vehicular accident on Monday September 20, 1999.
Ms Jordan, 36, who joined the Secretariat in June1996, was the first Surinamese national to be employed at the Secretariat following the accession of Suriname to membership of the Caribbean Community and Common Market in July 1995.
The good relations between Canada and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) were once again demonstrated when that country made a presentation of 100,000 Canadian Dollars to assist in the work of the constitutional reform process in CARICOM Member State, Guyana.
At a simple ceremony on Thursday, 9 September, at the CARICOM Secretariat's Headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana , H.E. Mr. Kamoji Wachiira, High Commissioner (Acting) of Canada to Guyana presented the cheque to CARICOM Secretary-General, Mr. Edwin Carrington.