THEME: STRENGTHENING RELATIONS BETWEEN THE BAHAMAS AND SOUTH FLORIDA

    Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my honour and privilege as the Foreign Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas to welcome all of you to this symposium organized by the Consul General of The Bahamas Alma Adams together with our partners of Bahamian descent in the South Florida area. I bring you greetings from Prime Minister Perry Christie, the Government and people of The Bahamas.  I want to thank you all on behalf of the Government and people of The Bahamas for your continuing inertest in The Bahamas, the Bahamian people and our welfare.

    The country is very proud of the success of Bahamians in South Florida.  We are also privileged to thank and to be associated with all those persons of goodwill who are not themselves Bahamians but who having met Bahamians here or married Bahamians here, love our country as if it were their own.  The question then is how do we utilize these strong bonds of affection to cerate a greater good for all of us, our friends and Bahamians at home and abroad?

    We have with us this morning representatives of civil society in The Bahamas.  Civil Society consultations are part of the mandate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with regard to our relations in the Caribbean Community. Strengthening ties with Bahamians abroad is part of the remit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Consulates abroad.  It is also a part of the processes of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA).  So we thought that it would be important for some representatives of  Civil Society to be here in Miami to witness this first hand, to get to know you and for you to know them.    I wish to introduce those who are here this morning and ask them to stand.

    I have had the good fortune of talking to and meeting with many of you on my visit to the Miami area before.  Amongst those that I spoken to are Canon Richard Barry of St. Agnes; Commissioner Arthur Teele; Willard Delancey of the Miami Police Department ; the Hon. Dennis Moss.   I look forward to more formal discussions today.

    The Bahamas as a small island state faces a number of challenges as it seeks to defend and define its sovereignty.  That is more critical than ever in a world of preemptive strikes when governments are unpopular with larger powers, in a world where borders appear to be dissolving in the face of economic relations and progress.   How does The Bahamas respond?
It must have friends abroad.   The pace of change and the skills required to meet the challenges do not repose in The Bahamas aloe. And what better friends could we have than those person who are connected to our country by ancestry.  There is natural affinity between us.

    We also know however that no man is an island and in the press of economic relations, there is interdependence.  And so the people of our descent in this country should be able to rely implicitly upon The Bahamas to defend their interests whenever the nation is called upon to do so.

    To do that, we must first know each other and better understand each other’s lives and work.  That is what this process is about today.  It is the beginning of what I hope is a profound and continuing dialogue that will lead to expanded cultural and economic ties.

    Some of our young small business people are here today.  I think in The Bahamas where there is a shortage of capital and there is not ready access to capital by young entrepreneurs, this should provide a good opportunity for them to see what is available here.  Businessmen here can expand their opportunities within The Bahamas.

    I hope that we can do this periodically and set goals and targets for ourselves as to where we want relations to go both here and at home.  At some point we ought to organize a conference of this gathering and others person in Nassau so that our countrymen can taste of your success and share your visions of the future.

    At the end of today’s meetings, I think we can have some certain targets.  Amongst them I would hope is a commitment to have special celebrations for the nation’s 30th independence anniversary later this year on 11th July 2003.  This is a remarkable milestone for small country.

    I thank you all for this tremendous effort and I congratulate the Consul General for her skill in so a ably organizing this forum.