St Kitts and Nevis: Dr Terrance Drew, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis touched down the Nassau, Bahamas, to participate in the Forty-Fourth (44th) Regular Meeting of the CARICOM (The Caribbean Community and Common Market) Heads of Government and delivered an opening speech yesterday on February 15th, 2023.

As per the recent updates, Prime Minister Drew addressed the attendees by welcoming and greeting his fellow ministers and leaders to the event. 

He began his speech, “The position where I stand. I see the beautiful people of the Caribbean. I wish you had this vantage point to see what I do; there is a great hope that our future and civilization are surely cemented.”

In his remarks, the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis stated that it is a sheer pleasure and honour to be able to stand here and utilize this opportunity to address all the heads of the governments who are here to attend the conference. 

PM Drew further acknowledged the presence of the Prime Minister of Bahamas, Phillip Davis, to arrange the large-scale meeting to host Caribbean leaders.

He extended his heartiest gratitude to PM Davis for providing such an opportunity for the meeting of CARICOM in its Forty-Fourth edition and first time in the Bahamas. 

During his opening remarks, he also recognized the appearance of the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, along with the President of the African import-export bank, Dr Benedict Okey Oramah.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Drew called the people and government of Bahamas for their warm welcome and for hosting the forty-fourth meeting of the CARICOM heads of government in Nassau city and extended his thankfulness on behalf of his delegation. 

Additionally, he specially mentioned Phillip Davis, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, for his continuance as the head of the government, along with heading the CARICOM meeting.  

Prime Minster continued his address in the context of his recent office elections following the general elections held in August 2022 and cited that he is aware of the responsibilities of the leadership and the importance of his pledge to look forward to a better life for the people of St Kitts and Nevis.

“The Caribbean Community today stands at the crossroads where we must focus our attention on the challenges and hardships confronting us as the small island developing states along with low line coastal community in an ever-increasing hostile global environment.” Said PM Drew

He pointed out that the challenges in front of us are well known, including the number of vulnerabilities in external economic shocks, the dependence on the few products along with intense natural disasters, high cost associated with debt and climate change, mitigation, economic recovery from covid-19 pandemic, supply chain disruption increases the cost of total production affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Twin-Island Federation, Prime Minister noted that the grants and concessional fees had enabled the nation to recover from the external economic and environmental shocks. “These overlapping challenges have cost and impacted all sectors of the economy, forcing us to play catch-up while advancing towards the respective development agenda.”

“CARICOM has remained an effective forum for its all-member states to make room for the international community seriously address and resolve structural challenges we face as small states. We strongly believe that greater consideration should be given to the multidimensional vulnerability debts as a more holistic metric to address complex issues I highlighted today.” Concluded PM Drew.