[00:20:11] I therefore hope and pray that our region will deeply collaborate and partner to see how best we can speak with one voice with respect to where we go with the cruise industry in our region and how best we can extract even greater benefits for those citizens who in very many instances are small players within our economy, but who depend strongly on the additional number of persons visiting our countries on a weekly basis on the cruise ships when they come back.
[00:20:41] There is also the issue that we faced with respect to the governance issues within the region. This has not been an easy period for CARICOM and believe you me, we have had, as the Secretary-General said, to deal with a range of issues. Indeed, the number of democratic elections that are being held within this region in this period of time is perhaps one of the most intense periods for any region across the global community. In December, Dominica had elections; in March, Guyana had elections; in June, St. Kitts had elections; in May, Suriname had elections. And there are a number of other countries that are due within the near future to have democratic elections.
[00:21:27] We have, as a region, made it very clear, the values that we stand for, and those are reflected in the CARICOM Charter for Civil Society. Without saying more and doing more, I want to say that we have tried to play our role by ensuring that we are there for members of the Community by being able to send in electoral observer teams. We set them in Suriname. We sent them in, in St. Kitts and in Guyana’s case, we sent in two teams. First, an electoral observer team and then a high-level team that went in after the five Heads of Government visited Guyana when it was clear that there was not going to be an easy ride for the declaration of a result from the March 2nd elections.
[00:22:11] It is regrettable that today, the third of July, there is still no clarity as to the conclusion of that electoral process. But we have said what we’ve had to say on that matter and we await the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice. But we also know that we have a duty to support one another. And I say simply this, Guyana has a bright future. Guyana must have a future that makes every Guyanese a winner and not just some. And we trust and pray that we are in a position as a family to work together, but we cannot ignore principles when it is inconvenient to stand by them. I say enough on that matter at this stage and I look forward to us being able to resolve this as a family and to ensure that the values which we reflect as a Caribbean Community are those values which our founding fathers enshrined for us and which we continue to hold dearly, because these are the values that make the definable difference to the kind of democracy that we need to have that is different from that, which the kind of exploitative history that the Caribbean was forged in after its modern settlement.
[00:23:28] As we go forward, we also recognize that there are other difficulties within the Community that continue to have to be dealt with. I am happy that we were able to ensure that a level hand was played with respect to the difficulties being faced by our colleagues in the Turks and Caicos and in the Bahamas with respect to aspects of migration and I believe that there is a framework that allows for easy communication, but that there has to be respect for the difficulties that individual countries face as we go into the hurricane season on top of the management of this pandemic.
[00:24:03] My friends, this has been a difficult six months for the region but I have every confidence that the region can make it. I have every confidence that we will get it together. There are those of you who are deeply worried about the absence of interregional transport with the news that Liat will be liquidated. Let me say at the outset that this is not an easy decision for any of us. But the reality is that Liat has been for us, a critical part of our history. It has allowed Caribbean people to move, but there also is a time when those instruments that served us well in the past may not be the right instruments for us going forward. And to that extent, the Board of Directors, because of the heavy debt, which Liat has been carrying, not now, but for many, many years, have indicated to us that it is no longer possible to trade as Liat 1974 Limited and that in truth and in fact the company is effectively insolvent and that it needs liquidation.
[00:25:13] They would have done so conscious of the fact that unless you liquidate an insolvent company, Directors will be given guilty of fraudulent trading and to that extent, as shareholder governments, we have had to respond simply because to do otherwise would mean providing a level of funding that we simply do not have at this time in the affairs of our Community and in the affairs of our nations.
[00:25:39] The good news is, is that our commitment remains to safe, reliable, affordable travel within the Eastern Caribbean. I asked the Secretariat to prepare a report for me two weeks ago and they were able to show that there are thirty-eight airlines flying within our Caribbean Community, nine of which come from outside. The remaining 29 agreeably are predominantly in the northern Caribbean and it is therefore within the southern Caribbean that the greatest gap exists.
[00:26:08] I am happy to report as Chair of the Community and as Prime Minister of Barbados to my certain knowledge, that since announcements were being made earlier this week about Liat’s demise, that six airlines have come forward offering to fill the space: SVG Air and One Caribbean out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Chairman, I am sure, will speak more to that; CAL, which is already an airline known to the region; Inter-Caribbean, which is an airline from the Turks and Caicos and is a successor airline to Air Turks and Caicos and has been around for over 20 something years with an extensive fleet as well; Silver, which we have asked to meet with us over the course of the next few days, and that is an airline out of the United States of America, but working within the Caribbean and between the US and the Caribbean; and, of course, the Air Antilles which is French-based, as you know, and predominantly between Martinique, Guadeloupe and Paris, but have an interest now, in working within the southern Caribbean.
[00:27:18] We are satisfied that these six airlines can more than fill the immediate gap, particularly given the reduced travel within COVID. Having said that, I hope that we will be able to work with them and other private sector players who have also expressed an interest to being able to see how they can work, either on their own or with some of the existing players in order to be able to fill the gap simply because governments have now to use their funds to be able to deal with health expenditure, to be able to deal with water, to be able to deal with other forms of transport, to be able to deal with the fact that our tourism sector, as well as our vulnerable populations, are all requiring us to hold their hands because they have come to zero revenue.
[00:28:04] Our unemployment, for the most part in the region, in some instances, it has doubled; in other instances, it has trebled. And therefore, we come to this moment not because there is pleasure in coming to this moment, we come to this moment as a matter of practical reality, that governments must focus on keeping their citizens alive, governments must focus on keeping their economies going, and if that focus can allow others to come on board and to be able to help us carry the weight, well, my people in Barbados would tell you that I live by the mantra, “many hands make light work,” and we look forward, therefore, to being able to ensure that the people of the region will be able to have affordable, reliable, safe access to air travel within the next few weeks.
[00:28:51] In addition, as Heads of Government earlier this week, we agreed that those countries that are in a position to help stimulate air travel through the reduction of airline taxes should immediately reflect and see how they can revise so to do, and that similarly, to the extent that licenses and AOC (air operator certificates) are needed, for some of these private sector airlines to be able to connect our countries, that we should proceed to assist as far as possible, being able to use the power of the pen where the might of the dollar is not capable of filling the gap.
[00:29:26] I hope, therefore, as I pass on this Chairmanship to my brother to the person who is the most senior of us within the region as Heads of Government, that we will continue to see the improvements that will endure to the benefit of ordinary Caribbean people. I said at the outset of this speech that I did not want to focus just on technocratic matters and I could have, for the reality is that within the region we’ve done a number of things that have also benefited others over the course of the last few months – in terms of pension arrangements, in terms of the flying of the Caribbean flag, in terms of our regional institutions.
[00:30:09] As I handover to you, Mr. Chairman, I make one simple appeal. I started this by thanking the regional institutions who continue to play an indispensable role in the functioning of our Community on a day-to-day basis; not on a fumarole basis, on a day-to-day basis. I end it now by also asking our countries to recognize that as it is hard for us domestically, it is equally hard for many of these regional institutions to survive. And we have to find a way of resolving once and for all after these decades, a form of financing for regional institutions that allow them to be able to function not with a lot of luxury, but to be able to deal with their core functions supporting the individual needs of Caribbean countries.
[00:31:01] Our community of sovereign nations is premised on functional cooperation. It’s also premised on the kind of cooperation that comes from these regional institutions. We have to find a way of providing that automaticity of financing if we are to make a success of these Caribbean institutions. Without cash, there is no capacity to care regrettably, and that is the reality of what we are facing. These are difficult times. These are challenging times. But I know that a hundred years ago in our own country, we laid the foundation to be able to fight off the oligarchy. And what we have achieved in the last hundred years, nobody in their wildest dreams could have imagined in terms of being able to change the quality of life for so many of our citizens.
[00:31:50] What motivates us today is that there are others who have not gotten on the train. And regrettably COVID-19 and the climate crisis is threatening as well as the public health disease of violence, is threatening to throw others off the train. If ever the Caribbean Community needed to stay as one, if ever the Caribbean Community needed to act as the adult nations that we are, if ever the Caribbean Community needed to be able to band together to allow us to make up for the deficiencies that we have within each territory and to allow the regional institutions to avoid for us the duplication of expenditure on critical areas of governance, it is now. And I pray, Chairman, I pray Secretary-General, I pray colleague Heads of Government, that our populations will give us the strength, the support, the commitment necessary to stay the course, to remain focused and to understand that like with what is happening with this initiative from the US and others, that we will claim ground and move on.
[00:32:59] We have other battles still to fight, like the naming and shaming by the European Union who ought to know better and who ought to recognize that hitting a country when it is down, whether it is Jamaica or Bahamas or Trinidad or Barbados or Antigua or St. Lucia or St. Vincent, as it has in the last few years, that hitting their country when it is down and causing it to face consequences even when the country agrees to cooperate with global standard-setting bodies like the OECD or like the Financial Action Task Force is fundamentally wrong. We do not support bullying in any form. And I have said whether it is in matters pertaining to this family or whether it is matters pertaining to the international community, my mother and father taught me not to shout and not to be shouted at. More importantly, they anchored in me a commitment that says that I will not and we should not be intimidated by family, friend or foe.
[00:34:00] I hope that if we move forward on the understanding that this is going to be a difficult period of time and that those who lived 100 years ago did not have the promise of being able to get out of their difficulties within five years, but endured between 1914 and 1945, 31 years of difficulty – but they endured it – and they laid the platform for us that produced all that you see, that produced the genius within the entertainment and the sporting fraternities, that produced the kind of calibre of persons within our economic structures, our financial structures, our political structures. And we, too, can do like them because we are made of the same stock and we are made together to be able to achieve that which we can do to make the best opportunities possible for Caribbean people.
[00:34:55] We must make Caribbean people global citizens, but anchored by Caribbean roots. I look forward to working with you, Comrade Chairman Ralph. I look forward to working with other colleagues, Heads of Government. We know that this is a difficult time and I want to say farewell to Comrade President Bouterse, who has served well as a brother in arms over the course of the last few years, and to thank him or to ask for commiserations for handing me the Chairmanship of this Community at this very difficult and complex and challenging time.
[00:35:30] We will continue to stay the course and to make this region the best region that it can be standing for rights, standing for principles and standing, most importantly, for opportunity and prosperity for our people. I thank you. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for the honour of having served as the Chairman of the Caribbean Community on behalf of the people of the region. It is one of my greatest privileges to have done so and I continue to be buoyed by the wonderful nature of Caribbean people and confident that we, too, shall overcome this period of time. Thank you.
[00:20:41] There is also the issue that we faced with respect to the governance issues within the region. This has not been an easy period for CARICOM and believe you me, we have had, as the Secretary-General said, to deal with a range of issues. Indeed, the number of democratic elections that are being held within this region in this period of time is perhaps one of the most intense periods for any region across the global community. In December, Dominica had elections; in March, Guyana had elections; in June, St. Kitts had elections; in May, Suriname had elections. And there are a number of other countries that are due within the near future to have democratic elections.
[00:21:27] We have, as a region, made it very clear, the values that we stand for, and those are reflected in the CARICOM Charter for Civil Society. Without saying more and doing more, I want to say that we have tried to play our role by ensuring that we are there for members of the Community by being able to send in electoral observer teams. We set them in Suriname. We sent them in, in St. Kitts and in Guyana’s case, we sent in two teams. First, an electoral observer team and then a high-level team that went in after the five Heads of Government visited Guyana when it was clear that there was not going to be an easy ride for the declaration of a result from the March 2nd elections.
[00:22:11] It is regrettable that today, the third of July, there is still no clarity as to the conclusion of that electoral process. But we have said what we’ve had to say on that matter and we await the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice. But we also know that we have a duty to support one another. And I say simply this, Guyana has a bright future. Guyana must have a future that makes every Guyanese a winner and not just some. And we trust and pray that we are in a position as a family to work together, but we cannot ignore principles when it is inconvenient to stand by them. I say enough on that matter at this stage and I look forward to us being able to resolve this as a family and to ensure that the values which we reflect as a Caribbean Community are those values which our founding fathers enshrined for us and which we continue to hold dearly, because these are the values that make the definable difference to the kind of democracy that we need to have that is different from that, which the kind of exploitative history that the Caribbean was forged in after its modern settlement.
[00:23:28] As we go forward, we also recognize that there are other difficulties within the Community that continue to have to be dealt with. I am happy that we were able to ensure that a level hand was played with respect to the difficulties being faced by our colleagues in the Turks and Caicos and in the Bahamas with respect to aspects of migration and I believe that there is a framework that allows for easy communication, but that there has to be respect for the difficulties that individual countries face as we go into the hurricane season on top of the management of this pandemic.
[00:24:03] My friends, this has been a difficult six months for the region but I have every confidence that the region can make it. I have every confidence that we will get it together. There are those of you who are deeply worried about the absence of interregional transport with the news that Liat will be liquidated. Let me say at the outset that this is not an easy decision for any of us. But the reality is that Liat has been for us, a critical part of our history. It has allowed Caribbean people to move, but there also is a time when those instruments that served us well in the past may not be the right instruments for us going forward. And to that extent, the Board of Directors, because of the heavy debt, which Liat has been carrying, not now, but for many, many years, have indicated to us that it is no longer possible to trade as Liat 1974 Limited and that in truth and in fact the company is effectively insolvent and that it needs liquidation.
[00:25:13] They would have done so conscious of the fact that unless you liquidate an insolvent company, Directors will be given guilty of fraudulent trading and to that extent, as shareholder governments, we have had to respond simply because to do otherwise would mean providing a level of funding that we simply do not have at this time in the affairs of our Community and in the affairs of our nations.
[00:25:39] The good news is, is that our commitment remains to safe, reliable, affordable travel within the Eastern Caribbean. I asked the Secretariat to prepare a report for me two weeks ago and they were able to show that there are thirty-eight airlines flying within our Caribbean Community, nine of which come from outside. The remaining 29 agreeably are predominantly in the northern Caribbean and it is therefore within the southern Caribbean that the greatest gap exists.
[00:26:08] I am happy to report as Chair of the Community and as Prime Minister of Barbados to my certain knowledge, that since announcements were being made earlier this week about Liat’s demise, that six airlines have come forward offering to fill the space: SVG Air and One Caribbean out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Chairman, I am sure, will speak more to that; CAL, which is already an airline known to the region; Inter-Caribbean, which is an airline from the Turks and Caicos and is a successor airline to Air Turks and Caicos and has been around for over 20 something years with an extensive fleet as well; Silver, which we have asked to meet with us over the course of the next few days, and that is an airline out of the United States of America, but working within the Caribbean and between the US and the Caribbean; and, of course, the Air Antilles which is French-based, as you know, and predominantly between Martinique, Guadeloupe and Paris, but have an interest now, in working within the southern Caribbean.
[00:27:18] We are satisfied that these six airlines can more than fill the immediate gap, particularly given the reduced travel within COVID. Having said that, I hope that we will be able to work with them and other private sector players who have also expressed an interest to being able to see how they can work, either on their own or with some of the existing players in order to be able to fill the gap simply because governments have now to use their funds to be able to deal with health expenditure, to be able to deal with water, to be able to deal with other forms of transport, to be able to deal with the fact that our tourism sector, as well as our vulnerable populations, are all requiring us to hold their hands because they have come to zero revenue.
[00:28:04] Our unemployment, for the most part in the region, in some instances, it has doubled; in other instances, it has trebled. And therefore, we come to this moment not because there is pleasure in coming to this moment, we come to this moment as a matter of practical reality, that governments must focus on keeping their citizens alive, governments must focus on keeping their economies going, and if that focus can allow others to come on board and to be able to help us carry the weight, well, my people in Barbados would tell you that I live by the mantra, “many hands make light work,” and we look forward, therefore, to being able to ensure that the people of the region will be able to have affordable, reliable, safe access to air travel within the next few weeks.
[00:28:51] In addition, as Heads of Government earlier this week, we agreed that those countries that are in a position to help stimulate air travel through the reduction of airline taxes should immediately reflect and see how they can revise so to do, and that similarly, to the extent that licenses and AOC (air operator certificates) are needed, for some of these private sector airlines to be able to connect our countries, that we should proceed to assist as far as possible, being able to use the power of the pen where the might of the dollar is not capable of filling the gap.
[00:29:26] I hope, therefore, as I pass on this Chairmanship to my brother to the person who is the most senior of us within the region as Heads of Government, that we will continue to see the improvements that will endure to the benefit of ordinary Caribbean people. I said at the outset of this speech that I did not want to focus just on technocratic matters and I could have, for the reality is that within the region we’ve done a number of things that have also benefited others over the course of the last few months – in terms of pension arrangements, in terms of the flying of the Caribbean flag, in terms of our regional institutions.
[00:30:09] As I handover to you, Mr. Chairman, I make one simple appeal. I started this by thanking the regional institutions who continue to play an indispensable role in the functioning of our Community on a day-to-day basis; not on a fumarole basis, on a day-to-day basis. I end it now by also asking our countries to recognize that as it is hard for us domestically, it is equally hard for many of these regional institutions to survive. And we have to find a way of resolving once and for all after these decades, a form of financing for regional institutions that allow them to be able to function not with a lot of luxury, but to be able to deal with their core functions supporting the individual needs of Caribbean countries.
[00:31:01] Our community of sovereign nations is premised on functional cooperation. It’s also premised on the kind of cooperation that comes from these regional institutions. We have to find a way of providing that automaticity of financing if we are to make a success of these Caribbean institutions. Without cash, there is no capacity to care regrettably, and that is the reality of what we are facing. These are difficult times. These are challenging times. But I know that a hundred years ago in our own country, we laid the foundation to be able to fight off the oligarchy. And what we have achieved in the last hundred years, nobody in their wildest dreams could have imagined in terms of being able to change the quality of life for so many of our citizens.
[00:31:50] What motivates us today is that there are others who have not gotten on the train. And regrettably COVID-19 and the climate crisis is threatening as well as the public health disease of violence, is threatening to throw others off the train. If ever the Caribbean Community needed to stay as one, if ever the Caribbean Community needed to act as the adult nations that we are, if ever the Caribbean Community needed to be able to band together to allow us to make up for the deficiencies that we have within each territory and to allow the regional institutions to avoid for us the duplication of expenditure on critical areas of governance, it is now. And I pray, Chairman, I pray Secretary-General, I pray colleague Heads of Government, that our populations will give us the strength, the support, the commitment necessary to stay the course, to remain focused and to understand that like with what is happening with this initiative from the US and others, that we will claim ground and move on.
[00:32:59] We have other battles still to fight, like the naming and shaming by the European Union who ought to know better and who ought to recognize that hitting a country when it is down, whether it is Jamaica or Bahamas or Trinidad or Barbados or Antigua or St. Lucia or St. Vincent, as it has in the last few years, that hitting their country when it is down and causing it to face consequences even when the country agrees to cooperate with global standard-setting bodies like the OECD or like the Financial Action Task Force is fundamentally wrong. We do not support bullying in any form. And I have said whether it is in matters pertaining to this family or whether it is matters pertaining to the international community, my mother and father taught me not to shout and not to be shouted at. More importantly, they anchored in me a commitment that says that I will not and we should not be intimidated by family, friend or foe.
[00:34:00] I hope that if we move forward on the understanding that this is going to be a difficult period of time and that those who lived 100 years ago did not have the promise of being able to get out of their difficulties within five years, but endured between 1914 and 1945, 31 years of difficulty – but they endured it – and they laid the platform for us that produced all that you see, that produced the genius within the entertainment and the sporting fraternities, that produced the kind of calibre of persons within our economic structures, our financial structures, our political structures. And we, too, can do like them because we are made of the same stock and we are made together to be able to achieve that which we can do to make the best opportunities possible for Caribbean people.
[00:34:55] We must make Caribbean people global citizens, but anchored by Caribbean roots. I look forward to working with you, Comrade Chairman Ralph. I look forward to working with other colleagues, Heads of Government. We know that this is a difficult time and I want to say farewell to Comrade President Bouterse, who has served well as a brother in arms over the course of the last few years, and to thank him or to ask for commiserations for handing me the Chairmanship of this Community at this very difficult and complex and challenging time.
[00:35:30] We will continue to stay the course and to make this region the best region that it can be standing for rights, standing for principles and standing, most importantly, for opportunity and prosperity for our people. I thank you. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for the honour of having served as the Chairman of the Caribbean Community on behalf of the people of the region. It is one of my greatest privileges to have done so and I continue to be buoyed by the wonderful nature of Caribbean people and confident that we, too, shall overcome this period of time. Thank you.
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