Message from the Principal: UWI & CARICOM – Proponents of Regional Integration
 Earlier this month, from July 3 to 6, member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) met in Port-of-Spain for the 34th meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government. Interestingly enough, this year’s meeting of regional leaders also marked the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas that established CARICOM on July 4, 1973.
The UWI, with its 65 years of existence, pre-dates this regional grouping and it would be fair to say that this university, which now boasts four campuses across the Caribbean and is the second largest regional university globally, had a part to play in the integration movement that led to the formation of CARICOM.
Indeed, at the Opening Ceremony on Wednesday July 3 at the Diplomatic Centre, I was heartened by a statement made by the Honourable Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who herself is an outstanding graduate of The UWI. The Prime Minister gave great credit to The UWI for the important role it has played in regional development and regional integration and also in the formation of many of our leaders in Trinidad & Tobago and across the Caribbean region.
Trinidad & Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar assumed leadership of CARICOM from Haitian President Joseph Michel Martelly at the end of this meeting and I wish her every success as she takes the Caribbean Community forward in challenging times. While the effects of the current economic climate on member states and the framework within which the Community can achieve growth and development were major agenda items, there is one area that I would urge the team of regional leaders to seriously consider – that is the role of agriculture and agri-business in ensuring a sustainable Caribbean.
In the pages of this UWI Today, we have focussed a great deal on this sector’s challenges as well as the opportunities, many of which are obtainable through regional co-operation and political will. The answers we seek are there; they have been iterated over the generations by various experts such as Sir William Arthur Lewis and Professor George Beckford. Forty years later our young people are having their say as evidenced by the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors who organised an internet-based discussion in celebration of their 20th anniversary. They do not foresee a viable future without integration, without CARICOM. This discussion was viewed by almost 74,000 people regionally and internationally.
Our students and many of our alumni are a part of this generation and their research, ideas and vision will continue shaping the Caribbean’s future. The University of the West Indies stands ready, willing and able to work with regional governments to ensure, in the words of the Secretary General of CARICOM Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, ‘the success of a Caribbean Community that provides a safe, secure, viable and prosperous society that is the envy of all.’
Pro Vice Chancellor & Principal
EDITORIAL TEAM
Campus Principal: Professor Clement Sankat
Director of Marketing and Communications: Mrs. Dawn-Marie De
Four-Gill
Director of Marketing and Communications (Ag.): Mrs. Wynell Gregorio
Editor: Mrs. Maria Rivas-McMillan
Contact us:
The UWI Marketing and Communications Office
Tel: (868) 662-2002 exts. 82013, 82014
Email: uwitoday@sta.uwi.edu
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