Prime Minister Calls For A Unified CARICOM

(ZIZ News) Prime Minister the Honourable Dr. Timothy Harris addressed the 36th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM on Thursday, addressing the theme “Dwelling Together in Unity.”

He told the gathering that this year provides an ideal opportunity for the Caribbean Community to show the full weight of its collective voice and vote towards ensuring its effective and meaningful participation in the negotiations, asserting and inserting a small state perspective and protecting the interests of the people.

“This year provides a rare moment in history to engender a paradigm shift that would allow the independent nations of the region to finally break free from systems, agendas and philosophies that were put in place long before we were able to have a voice in the world community of nations,” he said.

In closing, the Prime Minister called on his colleagues to move forward with a unified goal.

“I therefore wish to posit to my colleagues that if we can manage to approach the regional agenda with such simple and achievable goals, and pursue them with vigour and unity, this would represent a quantum leap forward for the people of our community in our thousand-mile journey and hasten a golden era of prosperity and well-being in the Caribbean region. Long live Caribbean unity, long live CARICOM,” he said.

2015, according to Prime Minister Harris, is an important year as it will see several major international meetings being held. Among those listed were the United Nations Post-2015 Development Agenda, the Third International Conference on Financing for Development and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference.