I am honoured to have been asked to be here this evening at this 28th annual awards banquet.  This is the 30th year of the Institute and its work.  I wish to congratulate all of those who were its founders, organizers, leaders, members and students. It has an enviable reputation for quality and excellence. I am happy to be associated with it.  I am certain that I speak for all of my colleagues in the Government when I say that we are proud of what has been accomplished here.

 As Paul McWeeney was speaking, I allowed myself a brief time to reminisce about how some of the leaders here today and myself are all connected.  I have known Paul for quite a long time, first as brother of my friend and schoolmate Sean McWeeney, a former Attorney General.  Paul of course has his own reputation and life, and is doing a fine job at it.  Dr. Rodney Smith, is a former classmate of mine from the class of 1970 at St. Augustine's College in Fox Hill, and later while I was finishing my Master’s Degree at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States, he was on his way to first his Master’s and then doctorate from the School of Education.  I am happy to be able to welcome him back to The Bahamas as head of the College of The Bahamas.  I want to say that we expect great things from you.  Nat Beneby and I go a long long way back.  If you saw us forty years ago, we would have been dressed in the white short pants and pink shirts of the then the Eastern Junior School, now Palmdale Primary.  William Delancy is another contemporary; we grew up a stone’s throw from each other in the Centreville neighbourhood.

 I wanted to do that, not only to reaffirm my sense of community with the people who are here this evening, but to make the larger point, that all of us have come a very long way.  We have succeeded from humble and often difficult circumstances, certainly less auspicious circumstances than those in which we find ourselves today. None of us, I believe have forgotten our starts in life, and the responsibility to ensure that there is a hand up for everyone.  That certainly is an abiding principle of my own life.  I know my deceased parents would have had it no other way.

 I certainly want to congratulate them, all the names of my contemporaries that I have just called for all the fine work that they are doing toward the uplifting of The Bahamas through their work in the private sector.   I want to congratulate all of those who will receive their certificates this evening for their hard work and perseverance.  I know that it could not have been easy.  I wish you every success.  I wish to congratulate the special honorees: Rosemary Hanna, Christopher Dorsett, Glen Nottage, Eleanor Campbell, Anne Margaret Russell and Judy A. Brown.  Your honour is well deserved.  I wish you also every success.

 I have just come from the United Nations, where I delivered the country’s annual address to that body.  I wish to quote a paragraph from that statement in New York, which was delivered on Thursday 29th September and is the Governments' official statement about its views of the world in which we live. I quote:

“The Bahamas joins with other Caricom countries in voicing our concern about the persistent attempt on the part of some of the developed world’s unelected multilateral bodies to exclude developing countries from decision-making and norm setting processes thereby undermining our economies.  Chief amongst these is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.  The decisions of these bodies are not friendly acts.  We repeat the call we made last year about the need for a global forum to deal with these unfair practices.  We welcome the work that has been done in the Economic and Social Council of the UN to redress the balance in favour of a level playing field.  The arrangements for dealing with international tax matters in particular are a source of concern.  We pledge to continue to work with the UN toward establishing a world body that will deal with these matters in a fair and balanced way.”

 That important statement is part of the ongoing effort led by the Minister of Financial Services Allyson Maynard Gibson and the Attorney General Alfred Sears to defend the interests of The Bahamas and this sector which has provided such an important lift in our development for over fifty years.   We have been making the case that this country as a sovereign country should be able to make and choose its own tax laws and systems, and to decide what level of regulation is needed for the country's best interest.

 We came to office complaining that in our view that legislation had shifted the balance away from the right of the individual to privacy.  One does of course understand that norms change, and that the ground often shifts, one does not back away from the internationally accepted standards, but it is also important to protect our way of life.  A balance must be struck.  That is what the Government is committed to do.  I know that the Prime Minister believes passionately in our Financial Services sector and the need to nurture and protect it.

 I have a personal interest because the constituency that I have the honour to represent is largely a middle class constituency; with hundreds of workers from the Financial Services sector who have a fairly good way of life as a result of the work in the sector.  I therefore work assiduously to protect it.

 What is sometimes disconcerting is that public opinion in The Bahamas is so easily destabilized by the slightest public move by the Government, which would seem to cause some discomfort in international relations.  But sometimes that discomfort is necessary, if we are to win our point.  The public at large and the financial services sector must therefore have faith that we know what we are doing.

 The question that we have asked a number of our developed partners who have come to us for example asking us to sign Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties, is ‘why should we agree to such treaties when for example you make it difficult or impossible or our citizens to enter your country to trade and to do business?’  There is no doubt that some of them are in a stronger position than us in the world economy but it seems to us that a fundamental tenet of Foreign Affairs is that when they come to you because they want something, you must also have your list for something in return.  That is the way it usually works.

  You who are bankers may be aware of the vexing problem of the Schengen visa. There is at present no consulate or embassy that is able to issue those visas in The Bahamas, and often Bahamian businessmen and tourists have to wait for up to five weeks in order to get visas to enter countries in Europe.  I was recently told by our Ambassador in New York of an example where five middle aged women, all of them professionals who wished to travel to a European country and it took them five weeks to get the visa.

When the Bahamian delegation went to Rome to visit the Pope for the presentation of the Pallium to the new Bahamian Archbishop, it took some of those persons up to two weeks without their passports to get visas to enter Italy.  This is further made difficult if you are a Bahamian living in another jurisdiction like Bermuda.  The problems of visa access to European countries increase.

 I made the point in my UN Address as follows: “All states ought to act with caution in putting in place rules and regulations for travel, lest the denial of those rights cannot be defended by logic or objectivity.  This is especially so where we note that developed countries argue in favour of free trade and globalization but deny the benefits of that trade to legitimate travelers by administrative discrimination and bureaucratic procedures and delay.”

 The larger point that I made to each European delegation that I had to honour to meet in New York was that the European Union and the Schengen countries are all technologically developed countries.  There should be no excuse for either not allowing a consulate or Embassy in this country like the High Commission of Britain from the EU to issue the visas or an honorary consulate to do so or simply moving Bahamians from the common visa list so that we can enter their countries without visas as they do ours.  It is that simple.

 Their response is no.  It is not that simple.  But it is remarkable that when they come to our countries if we delay for even a week, we are suddenly reported to these unelected multilateral bodies of which I spoke as being non-co-operating countries.  I say: you should give a little to get a little.  But in international affairs many argue that, there is one rule for the powerful and another rule for the less powerful.

 It is important for you to understand the arguments, and the necessity of why we want to accomplish all of this.  We are seeking to do it for the business community, you amongst them to make it easy for you to get around the globe and do the work which you do so well.

 I happen also to be the Minister for the Public Service.  As you know the Government has committed itself to public sector and public service reform.  I can tell you that this is not an easy job. The entrenched interests are strong and powerful, and the election cycle in the country acts toward defeating any reform effort.  I have adopted the following definition of public sector reform by Professor Charles Cambridge.  He argues that public sector reform is to lay the infrastructure both physical and social so that the public sector can produce more jobs for the private sector.

 In other words, the primary job of the public service and the public sector is to produce jobs for the economy in the private sector.  The sector as presently constituted does not meet that elementary definition, and Ministers struggle daily with what to do to get the decisions made and executed in an accurate fashion so that the economy can get up and going.  This is a sensitive political matter given the fact that there are 20,000 persons who work for the service and entrenched bureaucracies have a lot of voting power.  There can be active opposition by threatening to vote out the politicians who push too hard.  There can be more insidious, passive but no less aggressive measures like delay that can also be the bane of any reforming politicians.

 But the problem of the slowness and the lateness and the deficiency of execution is not only a problem of which people complain in the public service.  I have described it in another forum as a cultural issue.  The inability in the country for us to make decisions and to get things done.

 My favourite anecdote to help to explain what I mean is the story of our public ceremonies for example.  Here we are in a modern country, that is to provide a world-class product, and we can’t seem to start anything on time, and finish it in a disciplined and crisp manner.  I have said in another context that - left to me - I could reduce all public ceremonies in the country down to one hour or less.  I think that could be the greatest legacy I could ever leave to public life in The Bahamas.  Let us face it.  We are no longer living in a village.  This is no longer 1940, where all one has to do is sit around for an entire day listening to speeches and endless praise.  There is life to get on with, as they say: things to do and people to see.

 We ought to clearly understand the role of the division of labour; that we don’t all have to speak, and we don’t all have to be in the same place, all making the same decisions.  We can walk and chew gum at the same time.

 That I hope is a lesson learned by all bankers in particular, where the complaint is that often decisions are not made as quickly and expeditiously as they ought to.  But certainly your sector’s organizations such as this have established a means of addressing the problems.  We are seeking to borrow a page out of your book in the public sector as well.

 So let me say again, that we are proud of what you do.  This institute was first established in 1974.  In that year, I had just graduated from University and was back home to conquer the world.  I could not have predicted any of the things that have happened to me since then except that I knew that as long there was life, I wanted my life directed in a certain way and place, and I have accomplished many of my goals.  It has been a remarkable and extraordinary journey for me personally and I thank all of allowed this incredible journey to be possible.

  All of us here are the elite of the society.  We are successful people.  I enjoy being around aggressive, innovative and successful people.  I am in my element.  We are the ones leading the society, making the decisions, moving the country along.  You who are obtaining the certificates and those who are being honoured here tonight play an important role in moving the country along.  On behalf of the Prime Minister, I want to thank you for all that you do for yourselves, you families and your country, and pray that almighty God will continue to bless you.