Honourable Prime Minister,
Honourable Ministers
Excellencies,
Mr. Secretary-General
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am extremely pleased, on behalf of the Government and people of Guyana to extend to you a warm welcome to the opening of this Fourth Meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations.
Honourable Prime Minister of Guyana
Colleague Ministers
Secretary-General
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished Delegates
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is indeed a pleasure to address this Fourth Meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) in my capacity as outgoing chairman.
His Excellency Mr. Samuel A. Hinds, Acting President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Honourable Ministers of Foreign Affairs and their delegations
Other Honourable Ministers
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors, High Commissioners and other representatives of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media
Colleagues
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Mr. Speaker, Allow me to also extend a special greeting to your special guests in this extraordinary public session. Excellency Owen Arthur, Prime Minister of Barbados and Chairman of CARICOM, and CARICOM Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington. Mr. Speaker, |
Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Heads of Government,
On behalf of the St. Lucia delegation, the delegations of the English-speaking Caribbean, and the delegations of the CARICOM sub-region, I wish to thank you for the warm and friendly welcome, and for the professional and efficient arrangements that the support staff of this summit have afforded to our delegations. The people of Canada have demonstrated amply to us that there is no effective correlation between temperature and temperament.
Your Excellency, Prime Minister Jean Cretien, Heads of States and Governments, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Mr. Chairman I feel particularly privileged today to speak at this historic Summit that highlights the importance of the process of democracy and good governance. This is so, as Grenada has gone through the process of a revolutionary dictatorial system in the period 1979 to1983; and has emerged into a striving democratic system of government. It is said that those who feel it, know it best.
I address you today in the name of the people of the Caribbean Community. In that spirit, I am pleased to recognise that the enterprise we are engaged in today in Quebec City began in the Caribbean almost two centuries ago.
For it was in Jamaica in 1815 that the great apostle of freedom, Simon Bolivar, wrote in his famous letter, "More than anyone else, I desire to see America fashioned into the greatest nation in the world, greatest not so much by virtue of her area and wealth as, by her freedom and glory".
Mr President
Let me first join my colleagues in expressing our appreciation to you and Secretary of State Powell for this opportunity to exchange views with you on issues of mutual importance. I have been asked to present our case with regard to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and its harmful tax competition scheme. This scheme poses an immediate and detrimental threat to nine of the fourteen countries represented at this table. If it is allowed to continue, it will eventually engulf all of them.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) once again joins with the rest of the international community in commemorating the United Nations designated International Women's Day. This occasion provides an opportunity to recognize the significant role women have played in the life, livelihood and sustainability of our Region and indeed, in other parts of the world and to record our appreciation therefor.
At the Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Georgetown, Guyana in July 1986, the then Prime Minister of Barbados, the Rt Hon Errol Barrow, asserted that it was the "collective wisdom" of the Caribbean people that would make for unity and integration within the Community. He was however, adamant that_
"the promise of the regional integration movement, even in the area of trade, cannot be realised unless we find new ways of communicating to our people the meaning and purpose of all our regional institutions"