– President Jagdeo during address at 29th CARICOM Heads Meeting
THE 29th Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government Meeting which is being held in Antigua and Barbuda opened last evening with Guyana’s Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo making an address premised on three facets which he said if tackled collectively, could yield significant positive dividends for the region.

President Jagdeo said the issues of food security, the region’s knowledge base, and climate change are the areas to be aggressively addressed.

Food security
Against the backdrop of a food import bill that is over US$3 billion, President Jagdeo explained: “Food accounts for up to 20 per cent of total imports in some of our countries, and almost all of our countries have a negative food trade balance that rises in some cases to as much as 10 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP.”

He noted that the macro-economic stability of the region is under serious threat with recent developments in food prices, and with the global demand for food likely to double by 2030.

In order to secure the region’s food supplies and ensuring that children of the future have food to survive, President Jagdeo said governments need to show solid commitment by increasing budgetary allocations for agriculture, and work consistently to remove constraints and to create incentives for private sector investment.

He pointed out that an attempt was made to deal with agriculture in this manner through the recently held agriculture investment forum in Guyana and though this was successful with respect to networking opportunities, ‘it was disappointing from the lack of high level participation’.

Preparing for a knowledge-based world
In addressing the issue of preparing the region’s people for a knowledge-based world, the Head of State noted that the region has a long and cherished reputation as a producer and exporter of ideas and talent. However, he questioned whether the region’s education sector is still competitive with other regions of the world.

President Jagdeo said education is important in a world that is increasingly characterised by the creation of value through intellectual assets. He said there is need for investment that would create vast social bandwidth and would revolutionise communication, education and business in the region.

“We need as a matter of the highest priority to devote more attention to the formulation of such initiatives that would be aimed at catalyzing the bold and more rapid transformation of our region and better equip us as producers and exporter of intellectual capital through educational services,” the Head of State said.

Climate change
The third issue the President highlighted was countries’ vulnerability to climate change.

“Given the systemic impact of natural disasters on our societies…The region as a matter of urgency must craft a strong and unified position for the process leading to a framework that provides sufficient funds for mitigation and adaptation for our region,” President Jagdeo said.

He noted that the region must craft, as a matter of urgency, a strong and unified position for the process leading to Copenhagen next year to ensure a favourable post Kyoto framework. He stressed that it must take into account the huge contribution of the region to ecological services through the standing forests in Guyana and Suriname which act as a huge carbon sink, removing and storing green house gases.

“It is important that there be a market based mechanism to remunerate us for these ecological services. This could become a huge opportunity for the region,” President Jagdeo said.

‘Together, Guyana and Suriname have 30 million hectares of forests. If one were to estimate conservatively that each hectare stores 10 tonnes and each tonne is priced at $10, this could result in an annual inflow of $3B,” he asserted.

The Head of State added that the annual meeting should be used by regional heads to engage directly with people of the region. He said the meeting should be moved beyond a public relations exercise to one where there can be discussion and debates on issues of concern to the community.

Commenting on the forward movement of the integration process, the Head of State said: “Dialogue is necessary if we are going to forge stronger ties in the community and build a Committee among its leaders.”

He noted that in so doing, meetings of Heads of Governments should not become ritualistic.

“I fear that often we go about dealing with the matters before us in a mechanical way following a routine checklist of recommendations. Those who are familiar with the documents produced by our hard working technicians at the CARICOM Secretariat, all that we are required to do is to note, to encourage, to approve, to agree or to recommend. I find that we are most productive when we are unfettered by pre-packaged recommendations,” he said.

President Jagdeo added that for success in regional enterprise the goals of integration cannot be continuously defined and redefined.

“We have to balance the seeming obsession with architecture and framework and noble and lofty ideas, however important they are, with the need to work on practical initiatives; initiatives that create opportunities for young people and entrepreneurs, initiatives that solve problems facing our people on a daily basis, and initiatives that allow the region to maintain its viability in the face of a changing world,” President Jagdeo declared.

During the 29th Annual Heads of Government Meeting being held from July 2 to 4 there will be a one-day focus on tourism, which was agreed to at the 19th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference in the Bahamas in March of this year.

Also up for discussion are plans for the CARICOM/Spain Summit scheduled for July 11 in Madrid, the CARICOM/Canada Summit to be held during the last quarter of the year, the African Union Diaspora Summit set for October in South Africa, and a meeting of regional and sub-regional integration groupings of Latin America and the Caribbean to be held in December in Brazil.

Several of the region’s renowned figures were honoured at the opening ceremony including Professor Barbara Bailey of Jamaica who received CARICOM’s ninth Triennial Award for women; Cricket super-star and icon Brain Lara; and Professor Rex Nettleford, Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies