TOAST BY
HIS EXCELLENCY BHARRAT JAGDEO
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GUYANA
AT THE RECEPTION TO MARK
CARICOM DAY 2002

Colleague Heads of Government
Secretary General
Special Invitees
Ladies and Gentlemen

I am very pleased to be here in observance of CARICOM Day 2002 and the convening of the Civil Society Encounter. The occasion marks the completion of 29 years as a Community and gives us an opportunity to review the progress we have made, and to renew our commitment to the integration process.

Tomorrow, the meeting between the Heads of Government and Civil Society will be convened. It is a long overdue encounter. I hope that we could use this opportunity to establish a framework that will allow us o work in partnership, for the good of the peoples of the Caribbean.

For small countries the effort to forge deeper levels of integration requires considerable courage. However, the circumstances in which we find ourselves dictate an intensification of the pace and extent of our regional enterprise in order to survive and succeed in our undertakings.

I believe that the peoples of the Caribbean Community have demonstrated the capacity to mount the necessary response. Our relative smallness of size has often not been a reliable gauge of the strength of our ideas, aspirations nor potentials for achievement. Indeed, the peoples of the Caribbean, despite formidable constraints, have made, and been recognised for outstanding contributions in all disciplines. Today, it is this ingenuity, energy and pragmatism that will inspire confidence of equal success in our regional undertaking.

I would wish to take this opportunity to applaud the work of our Secretary-General and the staff of the Secretariat. I praise the peoples of the region for their abiding faith in our common destiny. I welcome you, the leaders and representatives of Community States, for your efforts to improve our region. Finally, I salute the founders of our Community for their foresight for promoting the togetherness of the Caribbean peoples.

I therefore wish to propose a toast to prosperity of the people of the Caribbean.