Lolita Applewhaite

​(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) On behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, I wish to add my words of welcome to all of you present at this landmark occasion, the inaugural meeting of the Executive Board of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).

After several years of assessments, debates, and resolutions based on numerous feasibility studies and reports, the moment has arrived when this Board will actual preside over the virtual ‘beginning of the future’ of CARPHA (to borrow a phrased coined by Winston Churchill)

​On behalf of the CARICOM Delegation, I wish to welcome you most warmly to the Headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat on the occasion of the Sixth General Meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and its Associated Institutions, and the United Nations (UN) System.

It is indeed a pleasure for CARICOM to host the United Nations and several of its Institutions in our Region. The presence of so many of our Regional Institutions, along with strong representation from the UN System at this Meeting, highlights the level of commitment on both sides to this important partnership.

​(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) It is my pleasure to welcome you to this Second Forum on Donor Co-ordination and Aid Effectiveness.

In so doing I wish to express the Community’s on-going solidarity with the Government and people of Japan as they continue their struggle to come to terms with the effects of the disastrous earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant leaks. At the same time I am certain that the splendid performance of their successful World Cup women’s football team would have brought joy to the nation. Congratulations!

​Today is for me, and I would hazard, for all of us here, an occasion charged with mixed emotions, those of sadness but also those of satisfaction.

It is always a sad occasion to say farewell to someone; it is all the more so, when the object of these sentiments of “fare thee well” is a person of such stature to whom the Caribbean Community will remain indebted.

The satisfaction comes from celebrating a job well done in Your Honour’s guiding a new regional institution along the path towards excellence and high esteem.

​CARICOM is dead! CARICOM has lost momentum! CARICOME CARIGONE! trumpet the headlines of our regional press.

I stand here today to say_ CARICOM is alive! CARICOM is on the move! CARICOM is here to stay!

How can I stand here and assert this? Because I will, as succinctly as possible, lay out for you today what CARICOM is and you will join with me in seeing that CARICOM is not a uni-dimensional construct but a multi-dimensional living organism.

​Chairman, Dr. the Honourable Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Health, Republic of Guyana

Honourable Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis and CARICOM Lead Head of Government for Human Resources, Health and HIV/AIDS Senator the Honourable Therese Baptiste-Cornelis, Minister of Health, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago Dr. Mirta Roses, Director, Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) Dr. Edward Greene, Special Adviser, Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) Development Partners

The myriad issues before this Thirty-Second Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) speak to the breadth and depth of the regional integration movement and its impact on the everyday life of the citizens of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
The discussions are taking place in what continues to be a difficult environment in the Region as a result of the global economic and financial crises, although there are some positive signs of recovery with some of our Member States being able to take advantage of the upturn in the
global economy.

​Honourable Dr Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis

Honourable Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Honourable Sam Condor, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of COFCOR Distinguished Ministers of Foreign Affairs of CARICOM Member States Distinguished Guests Senior Officials and Delegates of Member States of CARICOM Member States Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat Representatives of the Media

​It is with pleasure that I welcome you to this Eighteenth Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Caribbean Forum of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States (CARIFORUM).

You have come together in fulfillment of the mandate of the 17th Meeting of the Council of Ministers last November which set the agenda for this meeting. The fact that so many of the Member States are represented at the Ministerial level underscores the importance of the critical nature of the item to be discussed and that is also attached to deepening the relationship among CARIFORUM States.

It is with pleasure that I welcome you to this Eighteenth Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Caribbean Forum of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States (CARIFORUM).

You have come together in fulfillment of the mandate of the 17th Meeting of the Council of Ministers last November which set the agenda for this meeting. The fact that so many of the Member States are represented at the Ministerial level underscores the importance of the critical nature of the item to be discussed and that is also attached to deepening the relationship among CARIFORUM States.