ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE PATRICK MANNING PRIME MINISTER OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO AT THE LAUNCH OF THE FIFTH SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS HYATT REGENCY HOTEL PORT OF SPAIN FEBRUARY 26th. 2008

Introduction

I am very pleased to address you on this most significant occasion. Today we launch the Fifth Summit of the Americas to be held in Trinidad and Tobago in May 2009.

It is indeed a great honour for our country to have been chosen as the host of this most important gathering of hemispheric leaders. It is the first time that the meeting is being held in a Caribbean state and it is a clear indication of the leading role that Trinidad and Tobago is now playing in hemispheric affairs. We are grateful for the support we received from Member States in our bid to host this very important meeting. We also see our involvement as a Caribbean effort and in consultation with our regional partners, we will do our best to ensure that Caribbean concerns are fully aired in the deliberations of the Summit.

The theme of the summit is “Securing Our Citizens’ Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability”; and was developed in consultation with many stakeholders, including member states, development experts, civil society, the private sector and regional development institutions. The process of interaction among major players has therefore already started, and it is our intention as host, to deepen this collaboration, providing all with an opportunity to contribute to developing solutions for the challenges facing the region. We think this is important if we are to strengthen the connection between the Summit process and the welfare of the people of the Hemisphere.

The Summit process
The Summit of the Americas process started fourteen years ago at the inaugural meeting in Miami in 1994, at which I was privileged to participate as the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Since then Summits have been held in Chile, Canada and Argentina as a result of which we have seen growing collaboration and cooperation among the countries of the hemisphere. This Fifth Summit is coming at a crucial time in world affairs, when the issues to be discussed have become more important than ever and when the urgency of concrete action has become even greater than in the past. Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean therefore hold the spotlight at a crucial time in hemispheric development.

Hemispheric Challenges
1. Economic
As we prepare for the Summit, very significant challenges face our nations. The threat of a global economic slowdown could jeopardise the gains we have made throughout the hemisphere where economic growth has averaged 5% over the past four years. The Summit must therefore examine how we must further free and fair trade as well as investment flows among our nations which constitute a market of over eight hundred million consumers; a tremendous resource which, with a sensitively constructed collaborative architecture, could provide the foundation for an enduring economic dynamism, that would spread wealth, development and opportunity throughout the hemisphere.

In this age of increasing interdependence, growing hemispheric integration is inevitable. Several sub-regional economic agreements have been completed and others are being pursued. These could eventually act as building blocks towards the larger vision that was originally envisaged in Miami in 1994. At Port-of- Spain in 2009, we should critically re examine how we move forward to develop the tremendous economic potential of our hemisphere for the benefit of all.

2. Poverty Reduction
How else can we generate the resources for surmounting so many of the problems we face. Poverty at unacceptable levels is presently a major challenge in many countries. In fact, today, ninety six million citizens in Latin America and the Caribbean live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than one US dollar a day. The result is that the hemisphere experiences one of the highest rates of inequality in the world. The Summit process is based on collaboration and cooperation in the interest of all and therefore must tackle the issue of poverty reduction and eventual eradication if we are to truly benefit from the increasing interdependence among our nations.

3.Crime and Security
Poverty is a root cause of the unacceptable level of crime facing so many nations of the hemisphere. It provides fertile breeding ground for the illicit trade in drugs, for example, which fuels the proliferation of illegal arms, gang wars, kidnappings and unprecedented numbers of homicides, all of which threaten the security and stability of societies throughout the hemisphere. We are dealing here with organized crime as nefarious networks cooperate across many borders, operating with deadly efficiency.

Nations in the hemisphere must therefore intensify the collaboration, which we have already started, to effectively deal with this menace which not only inflicts murderous violence on society but can have a corrosive influence on important institutions in the hemisphere.
We must also never lose sight of the need to dampen demand, especially in those nations within the hemisphere and beyond which provide the largest markets for this illegal traffic.

The coming Summit must strengthen efforts, in specific and effective ways, including improving the interdiction capability of small island developing states, if we are to succeed in this fight against the drug trade and other trans national crime including the ever growing threat of terrorist activity.

4.Human Resource development.
Poverty also impedes the development of our major resource, the people of the hemisphere. But human resource development needs more than economic growth. It needs the appropriate vision and relevant policies. Therefore whilst we must all pursue the appropriate macro economic framework for unleashing the entrepreneurial energy to create the wealth and jobs that we need, it is also critical that Governments recognize the necessity for some very direct state intervention for the development of our human resources.

Emphasis must be placed on Education and Training for skills development throughout the hemisphere. Too many children in Latin America and the Caribbean receive no education beyond the primary level and this undoubtedly contributes to the fact that, according to ILO reports, twenty two million young persons in our region are neither studying nor working and therefore have limited prospects for individual development and consequently for contribution to their societies. In today’s extremely competitive global environment which is becoming increasingly knowledge based, we must upgrade our education systems from Early Childhood Care and Education straight up to University, using modern methodology and technology, and emphasizing accessibility at all levels. It is the only way to modernize and retool our workforce and to improve our individual and collective viability and competitiveness. Towards this end we must also build capacity for research and technological development at all our institutions of higher learning, as we seek to add value to our products through new creativity, innovation and inventions.

In addition to Education, access to the best possible health care is also critical for the development of our people; and we also need to emphasise personal responsibility and healthy lifestyles which are critical to the prevention of non-communicable diseases which are increasingly the cause of premature deaths world wide. Affordable housing, development of communities, and policies and facilities for sport, recreation and cultural development must also be placed in the forefront of efforts for the improvement of our human resource and the social cohesion of our countries in the hemisphere.

But resources are needed for all these developmental efforts and indeed for the improvement of the entire administrative, social and physical infrastructure of our nations. Clearly, national revenue alone cannot satisfy these critical needs. The matter of Financing for Development must therefore remain in the focus of the Summit if we are to ensure that our global and regional financial institutions remain committed to making resources accessible, particularly to those low income countries which are in dire need of development but lack the wherewithal to pursue their vision of progress.

5. Rising cost of Food
Ladies and Gentlemen, a growing problem we now face as a global community is the rising cost of food. Unusual weather patterns, high energy costs, growing consumption in large emerging economies, and the increasing production of bio fuels are all driving up the cost of food, producing unease in many countries including in our own hemisphere. Significant shortfalls in the production of grains are now a common reality on the world market. For instance, between 2004 and 2006 wheat and maize production in the European Union decreased by some 12 per cent to 16 per cent; and today global cereal stocks are at their lowest levels since the 1980s and are continuing to decline. No individual government could afford to ignore this problem and neither should a Summit of the Americas. We need hemispheric collaboration to face this challenge which increases in urgency with every passing day. CARICOM, as you are aware, is already moving in the direction of joint production of food for regional consumption and also for export; and its efforts could be expanded or replicated beyond our sub-region.

6. Energy Security
As I indicated, one of the major factors in the increasing price of food is the high cost of energy, caused, inter alia, by growing demand and no corresponding increase in supply. The situation is pushing costs upwards in the critical areas of production and transportation of general goods and services and making both inflation and economic downturn causes for global concern. The price of oil has long gone past unprecedented levels and made international headlines recently when it exceeded one hundred dollars a barrel. In the view of many respected experts, the days of cheap oil are now gone. It is not surprising therefore that energy security is a major item on the agenda of the Summit, which must produce, inter alia, a purposeful plan for the development of alternative sources of supply including wind, solar, geothermal and wave capacities. Without it the very foundations of our economic systems could be shaken.

7. The Environment.
New sources of energy are also needed to protect the environment and lessen the chances of the cataclysmic disasters that could be visited on humanity if the present level of global warming continues. The latest UN report has revealed that the chance of global temperatures rising by 2-3 ˚ over the next 50 years exceeds 75%. This would increase droughts, hurricanes, and rising sea levels, causing disaster and dislocation and affecting production to the extent that the world could lose up to 20% of total economic output in the next 50 years.
We have been warned not only by the UN report but by various levels of catastrophe that climate change has brought to various parts of the globe over the last two decades and more. Even the skeptics are now accepting that the need to reduce global warming is inescapable.

However we cannot continue to move in a leisurely fashion towards an internationally acceptable formula for the reduction of carbon emissions; one that takes into account the responsibilities and needs of all, small and large, developed and developing. There is need for expedition on the post Kyoto process and our Summit must play its inevitable role towards this end. The very preservation of life on the planet is at risk.

The need for consultation
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have highlighted just some of the key issues that we must grapple with as a hemispheric community in the coming Summit of the Americas. Extensive consultation is necessary if consensus on these issues is to be attained before the Summit actually takes place. As Prime Minister of the host country, I have my work cut out, which includes meetings and consultations with leaders in various countries of the hemisphere. It will mean frequent travel, a task which must be undertaken to ensure the success of the Summit.

The preparedness of Trinidad and Tobago
I give you the assurance that Trinidad and Tobago will be ready to host this historic meeting. We already have one of the newest and most modern conference centers in the hemisphere at the newly opened Hyatt Regency Hotel on the Port of Spain waterfront. Our preparatory process is moving apace, and we have established a National Summit Secretariat which operates out of the Office of the Prime Minister and which is spearheading and coordinating all activities for the preparation and implementation of the Summit.

The secretariat is headed by a distinguished son of our soil, Ambassador Dr. Luis Alberto- Rodriquez whose international experience with the IADB and other Western Hemisphere institutions and previous close association with the Fourth Summit held in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 2005 is being brought to bear Trinidad and Tobago’s efforts to host a successful summit.

The growing international profile of Trinidad and Tobago
I wish to further alert the national community on this coming important international event, when Trinidad and Tobago will take centre stage, hosting thirty four heads of State and Government and their delegations, numbering over two thousand visitors for the period. We will all need to put our best foot forward to ensure the success of the Summit.

I must also remind our citizens that after the Summit of the Americas, comes the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference later in the year when we will be hosting the leaders of fifty four nations and their delegations here in Port of Spain. We should all be proud of the high and positive profile that our country now enjoys in international affairs. May I also add that our 7 Nation West and Southern African initiatives in which we offer technical assistance and at no cost to the recipient countries in developing their energy sector and which I was privilege to launch at the African Union Summit in Addis Abba, Ethiopia in January 2007 has now been extended and at their request to a number of other West, Central and East African Countries which are now developing their oil and gas sectors.
Also, at the multilateral institutions, including the OAS and the UN, the voice of Trinidad and Tobago is now even more respected and our participation more productive than ever before.

Conclusion
We have much to gain from this intense involvement in global affairs. All the main issues on the international agenda are among those we ourselves face as we pursue the transformation of our country into a developed nation. And very importantly, we are making our contribution to the improvement of global society. When, for example, we make progress at the coming Summit of the Americas on the issues I have highlighted here this morning, our country would have made a significant contribution to the betterment of all the people in our hemisphere.

Onwards therefore to the Port of Spain Summit of the Americas in 2009. The world will be watching. Let us prepare in the months ahead to welcome our distinguished visitors and let us in the midst of the very intense work on which they will be engaged, also give them a taste of Trinidad and Tobago, its beauty, its culture, its way of life. Let the Summit be a success that will benefit all and let Trinidad and Tobago be remembered as a place where something positive took place for our hemispheric neighbourhood.

Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen.