(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Chairman of the Thirty-Fifth Meeting of the Community Council of Ministers of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Hon. Frederick Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, The Bahamas, has underscored the crucial need for CARICOM.
“I was asked the question that is heard too often around the region: what do you think will happen to CARICOM. Being a minimalist, I gave an answer that I always give: if it didn’t exist we would have to invent it; not to expect more than can be delivered; not to put more on it than it can bear. There is an intrinsic value in the conversation alone,” he said in opening remarks on Friday at the Meeting at the CARICOM Secretariat Headquarters, Georgetown, Guyana.
Expressing The Bahamas’ commitment to CARICOM, Minister Mitchell said that the Community was a part of its foreign policy, and added that he hoped his country would serve the Community well during its chairmanship.
The Bahamian Foreign Minister was full of optimism about the Region emerging out of its challenges.
“To be sure, one can list the issues, financial being amongst the most vexing. But the story of Joseph interpreting the dream of Pharaoh can best explain that life is cyclical and we have good years and lean years. Things will turn around,” he predicted.
Looking ahead to the Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in February, in Nassau, The Bahamas, he said, “The conversation on the political economy can find no better forum.”
“It is the hope of our Prime Minister that we will have a detailed discussion on the issue of human development and in particular addressing the question of youth unemployment; their sense of despair and hopelessness. In his statement most recently in China at the CELAC meeting, he opined that if we do not address this issue, we do so at the peril of all of our societies. The Bahamas believes that culture and sports point the way to the future,” the Hon. Mitchell said.
He told the meeting that he anticipated an assessment with the hope of making recommendations to CARICOM Heads of Governments on the shifting prices of commodities including petroleum and their effects on Member States.
Calling the meeting’s attention to the crisis in Nigeria wrought by the terrorist group Boko Haram, he stated that CARICOM “can make its voice heard and push above its weight around the globe.”
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