​I wish as Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as I make these remarks to join the preceding speakers in expressing great pleasure in addressing this formal opening ceremony of the 9th Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA).
Speeches
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Mrs. Angella Persad, President, Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce; Your Excellency Yolanda de Gavidia, Secretary-General, Economic Integration in Central America (SEICA); Your Excellency Luis Andrade Falla, Secretary-General Association of Caribbean States Mr. Dennis Evans, President Bankers Association of Trinidad and Tobago (BATT); Professor Miguel Carrillo, Executive Director, Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business; Representatives of the Media; Ladies and Gentlemen;
​ Honourable Sheik Baksh, Minister of Education of Guyana and Chairman of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD);
Honourable Sheik Baksh, Minister of Education of Guyana and Chairman of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD);
​ I extend greetings to you from the Staff of the Directorate of Human and Social Development ,and in so doing could not help reflecting on the mixed fortunes of this Council, its ever changing composition, due to the democratic processes to which our Member States adhere and to overwhelming progress to be celebrated in what may be termed a decade of dedicated delivery.
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Honourable Robert Persaud, Minster of Agriculture
Ms. Florita Kentish, Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
Representatives of Member States of the Caribbean Community
Representatives of Regional and International Organisations
Private Sector Representatives
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
​Since 2005, the world has experienced dramatic increases in the prices of many staple foods. Indeed, in the first three months of 2008, international food prices of all major food commodities reached their highest level in nearly 30 y.
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This workshop takes place at an important moment in history. With last week’s MDG Summit at the United Nations in New York evaluating the progress made mid-way to reach the targets set in 2005, we find ourselves in a World where close to one billion men, women and children remain undernourished. This is unacceptable.
​(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) I join the Chairman, Deputy Secretary General and the Director of PAHO in expressing warm greetings to you, the members of the Executive Board, who have the responsibility for piloting this noble venture which we are gathered here this afternoon to launch.
​ It is my pleasure to bring you greetings from the Caribbean Community Secretariat and indeed the entire Caribbean Community on the occasion of this Fifteenth Meeting of the RCM