Premier Smith charges OCTs to get into the ‘global hub’
“To achieve the progress we all desire as OCTs, we must strive to uphold the principle of equality, while taking into account the unique circumstances of each OCT, particularly those classified as isolated,” said Premier Smith.
Premier Smith was at the time giving brief remarks at the official opening ceremony held last evening at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, in the Eileene L. Parsons Auditorium, when he noted that he firmly believed that it is only by realising the full potential of each of society that they can achieve the sustainable development desired.
He said, “We have already identified the pillars of this process as 'green' growth, competitiveness and innovation. We must ensure that in the implementation of the Overseas Association (OAD) that these pillars are present. In real terms, this means developing centres of excellence in our societies and establishing ourselves as regional hubs of economic and other types of activity.”
This led to him making the challenge of getting into the global hub. “I might add that we should also strive to establish ourselves as global hubs. Our rich experience in international financial services has shown that this is within our reach,” said Premier Smith.
Even as Premier Smith noted that the OCTA Ministerial Conference will remain a pillar of OCT cooperation through which they can address common interests and concerns he had also established the fact that OCTA has continued to evolve and cooperate with the European Union and between themselves as OCTs has become even more important.
According to Premier Smith, the VI hosting of the Conference has already taken an impact on the younger generations as he recalled, “We have attempted to symbolically capture this principle by flying the flags of the OCTs in the heart of Road Town, our capital. It is also a good geography lesson for school children as I discovered when my grandson said that his class was going on a field trip on Friday. When I asked him why the roundabout, he told me to recognise the flags from around the world.”
The OCTA Ministerial Conference is the highest forum of dialogue for non independent territories and member states of the European Union, according to the Premier who also noted that for the people and Government of the (British) Virgin Islands, “It is a great a privilege to host this meeting in our Territory. For years we have been looking forward to sharing our experience in development with you. We are proud of our accomplishments as a territory of 30,000 people. Your presence here is renewed confirmation that there is great value in us experiencing each others' societies, which can bring mutual insights that we may have never imagined. Our diversity should indeed be strength.”
He said that they are at different levels of development and the various cultures and peoples vary. “This gives us a richness of experience to draw from in solving problems,” he noted.
The others who gave brief remarks were His Excellency (HE) Stephane Artano, President of Territorial Council of Saint Pierre and Miquelon and Immediate Past Chairman of OCTA; and Honourable Mr Ivar Asjes, Prime Minister of Curacao and Incoming Chairman of OCTA.
Speaking in his native language, which was translated by an expert linguist, HE Artano said that there are challenges ahead of the grouping which they must tackle, “We have political resolution that needs to be adopted, we have strategic government overseas policies that must be signed tomorrow… and we must continue what we have been doing in the past in terms of making sure that we are driving forces moving the OCTA forward,” he said.
HE Artano also said that one of the most important tasks that they have ahead of them is to define the decision making roles of each of the parties. “I think that we have to consider ourselves as a family and a family has to have open consultation internally and a family has to have specific roles defined.”
On the other hand, Immediate Past Chairman of OCTA, Honourable Mr Ivar Asjes said that it is imperative that they, OCTA, rethink their use of resources in order to create value and provide quality services to the members.
“As members of OCTA we have a collective responsibility to work towards the success and sustainability of our organization. We have an open mission to fulfill by constructively working together as OCTs in partnership with the European Union and member states to build resilience, inclusive and sustainable societies.”
The groups sit today February 26, 2015 to make decisions on areas they have all agreed to.
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21 Responses to “Premier Smith charges OCTs to get into the ‘global hub’”
See the first photo. What does this say about the leader or did the conference get off on the wrong foot?
Pathetic waste of resources. We should all be furious this is where our tax dollars go.