Caricom Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington is to be conferred with Guyana’s third highest national award, the Cacique Crown of Honour for his outstanding service to the Caribbean Community.

President Bharrat Jagdeo made the announcement at the reception to mark Caricom’s 30th anniversary at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel on Wednesday evening.

Carrington was also the recipient of a special award for being the longest serving Secretary-General. He was honoured along with 18 other staff members for their ten years of service to the community.

Amrita Hall was the lone recipient to mark 30 years of service.

Ronald Gordon received an award for 25 years of service while those receiving awards for 20 years were, Valerie Alleyne-Odle, Noreen Brown, Ivor Carryl, Thelma Joseph, Bernice Lee, Anna Simpson and Petal Waterman. Eight persons were honoured for 15 years of service.

In his remarks at the reception, Jagdeo said the new Secretariat building, to be completed next year, would stand as a symbol to Guyana’s renewed and revitalised efforts to strengthen Caricom.

Carrington paid tribute to the Guyanese people who, he said had never faltered in welcoming and hosting the headquarters of the Caribbean Community throughout the 30 years of its existence.

He noted that in the past three decades, the region had seen co-operation among member states reach unprecedented levels: in education - [such as] the Caribbean Examinations Council; in health - Caribbean Co-operation in Health Initiatives and the Pan Caribbean Partnership in the fight against HIV/AIDS [for example]; in the area of foreign policy - special arrangements with Canada, the UK, the US, Japan and Spain and the creation of a regional Association of Caribbean States (ACS); and in trade, where the region’s role in the Lome and Cotonou Conventions with the European Union was internationally recognized, and in many trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and soon Costa Rica.

He said it was clear that the community was working for quick progress in a number of key areas - the most urgent and critical being that relating to the establishment of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).

He noted that Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur, who was charged with spearheading the CSME process, was in The Bahamas speaking with the various stakeholders there on the pros and cons of their membership.

Carrington said the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, charged with leadership in the process of strengthening the implementation capacity of the Community, was similarly marshalling the political and technical resources to finalise the recently agreed guidelines towards the establishment of an executive implementing body. The Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Dr Kenny Anthony was guiding the process towards the imminent establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice, to at last provide the region with its own final court.

He said President of Suriname Ronald Venetiaan was engaged in preparing to welcome the region to the Eighth Caribbean Festival of the Arts - CARIFESTA - at the end of August; the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis was leading the struggle against HIV/AIDS; and Jagdeo was tackling the challenge of restructuring the region’s vital agricultural sector.

Noting the excitement generated at the recent Heads of Government Conference in Montego Bay, he referred to the four leaders who had gathered in Bridgetown, to pursue their options for closer links.

He said, “this is why the renewed rumblings that one of our Member States, St Kitts and Nevis, may well be rent asunder, albeit by constitutional means, are so unhappily discordant. We hope that all parties involved will consider their actions deeply, in light of the global realities that face micro-states, as well as take note of the renewed vigour with which our own integration process is infused.” The island of Nevis has been pressing to secede from St Kitts.