Prime Minister SPencer addressing the Opening Ceremony of the OECS 43rd Meeting view photos»

(SALUTATIONS)

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I must begin by extending deep appreciation to the Government and the people of St. Kitts and Nevis for the superb arrangements that have been made for this meeting.

On behalf of my colleague Heads of Eastern Caribbean Governments, I extend our thanks to our gracious hosts for the warm hospitality that they are extending to all of us.

While we are always assured of generous hospitality whenever we attend events in St. Kitts and Nevis, it is evident that our hosts are treating this 43rd meeting of the OECS Authority as a special occasion.

We should all be grateful for this, since the good people of this twin-island state must be already pre-occupied with the first Test Match they will host, and with the appearance of homeboy Runako Morton in the West Indies team for the Third Test against India on Thursday.

St. Kitts and Nevis treated cricket lovers to a West Indies victory over India in the first one-day international played in this country.

The inauguration of St. Kitts new cricket stadium means that this country is

Cricket World Cup ready.

This deserves our applause.

I am confident that all here assembled will join me in hoping that history will favour a West Indies repeat in St. Kitts’ inaugural Test.

Ladies and Gentlemen;
Eastern Caribbean Brothers and Sisters:

This meeting marks the formal celebration of the silver jubilee of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.

In fact, Sunday was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the OECS, which was established by the Treaty of Basseterre on June 18th, 1981.

This, then, is the Silver Jubilee of the OECS.

It is therefore fitting that we pay tribute today to the visionaries who recognised that, ultimately, the survival of micro-states in the Caribbean would depend on shared perspectives, objectives and institutions.

At the signing of the treaty of Basseterre, four of our Member States were newly sovereign nations.

The oldest among them was Grenada, which declared its independence in 1974.

Dominica, St. Lucia and St.Vincent and the Grenadines declared their independence several years later, 1978 and 1979.

Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and Nevis, still colonies of Great Britain at that time, were, however, on the threshold of asserting their own sovereign statehood.

My country, Antigua and Barbuda, celebrates its Silver Jubilee this year, on November 1.

It is to their enduring credit - and to the profound good fortune of the people of our sub-region - that the founding leaders of member states of the OECS, were prepared to invest significant areas of their newly-found sovereignty in a shared future and a strong union.

Twenty-five years ago, those pioneers and visionaries signed the Treaty of Basseterre, which spoke, essentially, to the joint exercise of sovereignty in the areas of foreign and economic policy.

At that time, the global economy was a factor in the cold war which pitted the socialist versus the democratic political and economic systems.

Of the four independent OECS states, one had adopted a socialist agenda and was pro –USSR, while the others tended to a pro-US outlook.

Ladies and Gentlemen:
Brothers and Sisters of the countries of the OECS:

Let us now celebrate the spirit of ‘81.

Let us join in paying public tribute to our founding fathers:

Dr. the Hon. Kennedy Simmonds of St. Kitts and Nevis;

The Honourable Sir Vere Cornwall Bird Sr. and his son, the Honourable Lester Bird of Antigua and Barbuda;

The Honourable Winston Cenac and Sir John Compton of St. Lucia;

The Honourable Maurice Bishop of Grenada;

The Honourable Hudson Tannis and the Honourable Milton Cato of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and

The Hon. Franklyn Margetson of Montserrat.

Let us also pay rich tribute to our founding mother, Dame Eugena Charles of Dominica.

Most of these visionaries have left the stage of politics.

Indeed, a number of them have left the stage of life.

They have all left us a unique and valuable legacy, which we must cherish and strengthen.

We salute them all.

We must also pay tribute to the outgoing Chairman of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.

Dr. the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves, the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was called upon to shoulder the responsibility of leadership of the OECS at the very sensitive period of the formalization of the Caribbean Single Market.

Prime Minister Gonsalves discharged that responsibility admirably.

Thank you, Prime Minister Gonsalves.

You leave me with as clean a slate as could have been possible.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

No review of the first twenty-five years of the Organisation of American states would be complete without a focus on the immense contribution of the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, Sir Dwight Venner.

All of us to whom the leadership of OECS countries has been entrusted are individually and collectively indebted to Dr. Venner.

Dr. Venner’s policies, his counsel, and the ready assistance of his specialist teams have provided valuable service to us all.

We thank you, Dr. Venner.

And we thank all who have served the Secretariat.

They have served all of our countries, and all of our peoples, in the process.

We salute you.

Our deepest gratitude also goes out to some very special friends of the OECS from the international donor community. Your financial and technical contribution to our organization and the process of regional integration over the years has been commendable and we applaud you as we move to deepen and strengthen the OECS.

We have no doubt that we can rely on your continued support and collaboration in even more tangible ways.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

As I accept the chairmanship of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean states, I am conscious of the momentous concerns with which my colleague Heads of Government and I will have to engage.

We serve societies whose expectations are shaped by life styles portrayed on the surfeit of American television we consume.

Their expectations bear little resemblance to the economic realities that are common to our countries.

Our economies are vulnerable.

We enjoy no advantages of size or scale.

We lack the capacity in the private sector, as well as in the public sector, to seriously confront either the challenges or the opportunities of globalisation, WTO rules and the Caribbean Single Market.

Our societies are affected by HIV/AIDS and crime, much of it drug related.

Add to these the threat of hurricanes which we all now face.

Given all of this, we can look to an encouraging option in the OECS Economic Union, which is at the core of the new OECS Treaty.

The proposal for an OECS Economic Union, the Draft of which will be presented at this meeting, is embedded in the Agenda.

This will deliver one of the key objectives of the Treaty of Basseterre.

With the synergies that economic union will bring, all our countries, can be more optimistic about the future of our individual countries.

The Draft Treaty will be made available to the people of all OECS countries.

It is of marked significance that the Treaty that we will ultimately adopt will be informed by, will be shaped by, and will embody the views of stakeholders across our sub-region.

I must, at this point, attempt to allay the concerns of some of our CARICOM counterparts might be of the view that the proposed OECS Economic Union might limit our commitment to the CARICOM Single Market.

I feel confident in giving the unequivocal assurance that every OECS Member State remains passionately committed to the goals of the Caribbean Single Market.

As was indicated in Montego Bay, we intend to fully participate in these arrangements.

The Chairman of CARICOM, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, the Honourable Patrick Manning, has confirmed that the Regional Development Fund is about to be adequately financed, in a timely manner.

This is encouraging to OECS countries, who will not, initially, be significant beneficiaries of the open trading trade arrangements of the Caribbean Single Market.

When the new OECS Treaty is in place, our sub-region will be a single economic and financial space, with fully harmonized economic policies.

The key objectives of the OECS Economic Union are:

To promote in Member States:

• Harmonious development of economic activities
• Continuous expansion of economic activities
• Increased economic stability
• Accelerated improvement in the standard of living
• Closer economic relations and the creation of a single economic and financial space
• Maximum interchange of goods and services through integration of the economic policies of Member States.

It is important to recognise that while the objectives of the OECS Economic Union are economic in nature; their realization requires changes in the way the Organisation is governed.

These changes are inherently political, and will, inevitably, affect the interface between member states and the Organisation.

These changes will involve the transformation of the Organisation from one that is primarily intergovernmental in nature to one that is supra-national.

The Organisation also needs to make itself more responsive to changes in both the national and external environment. Its responses must also be certain and effective.

In seeking to address this concern, the treaty has made provision for the OECS to make more timely and more binding decisions thereby making the Organisation more capable to effectively respond to the changing circumstances of the domestic and global environment.

It is not difficult to visualize that with the attainment of Economic Union the OECS will in many regards appear and operate as a single economic and political entity. It is my thinking and that of the other heads of government that when the OECS economic union is completed, the fruits that will be produced there-from will inspire us to dream of bigger and better things.

It is my hope that one day soon we can all catch the vision, the vision that was clearly seen by the founding fathers of the OECS- THE VISION OF A UNITED OECS.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I consider it a special privilege to occupy the Chair of the OECS at this pivotal moment in the life of our Organisation.

Among the key OECS priorities for the next year are:

• Consensus on the OECS Economic Union among the people of our sub-region.
• Conclusion of negotiations within CARICOM for the operation of the Regional Development Fund and other outstanding matters, thereby ensuring our fullest participation in the Caribbean Single Market.
• Negotiation of bilateral agreements with three CARICOM neighbours, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica, in order to strengthen relations in the areas of security, energy, air and sea transport, health and agriculture and
• The negotiation of maritime boundary delimitation agreement with Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

Another key issue that requires the attention of the member states of the OECS is the problem facing our young people. It has moved from a state of being “Your neighbour’s house is on fire,” to one where “The House is on Fire everywhere.” Our entire region is affected. We must address this problem now.

All across the region, anti-social behaviour among out young people has become a challenging issue.

Our young people are the custodians of our society and the trustees of prosperity for future generations.

Two thirds of the region’s population is below the age of thirty.

The present challenges facing our youth, if not addressed on a coherent, coordinated basis will present a bleak future for us all.

The youth of our nations can play important roles in our development if provided with the right tools, the learning and empowerment to employ those tools and a supportive environment in which to use them.

The time has arrived for members of the Church, the Business Community, schools and families across the region to work in partnership with government; we can ensure that the energies of our young people are positively utilized to maintain social and economic stability and cohesion in the sub region.

It is my hope that in our deliberations on issues facing the youth in our region, we will be able to use the many successes of the OECS as a catalyst to move forward together as one community to surmount the challenges facing our youth.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Given the expanding and increasingly complex nature of the Organisation’s workload, significant overhaul and strengthening the OECS Secretariat is imperative.

These changes are inherently political in nature and ultimately will affect the interface between Member States and the Organisation.

We must support Director General Dr. Len Ishmael and her team with expanded resources and enhanced capacities.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I look forward to a productive 43rd Meeting of the Authority; our 25th anniversary deserves no less.

I thank you.