The Right Honourable Perry Christie, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, The Honourable Shane Gibson, the Minister of Labour and National Insurance, Dr. Douglas Slater, Assistant Secretary-General, Human and Social Development, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, Mr. Guy Ruder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization, Presidents of Caribbean Employers’ Confederation (CEC) and the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) and other members of their respective delegations Mrs. Nicole Campbell, Permanent Secretary and Master of Ceremony, Ministers of Labour of the Caribbean, Permanent Secretaries, Labour Commissioners, Sir Dennis Byron, President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Dear panelists from the Region, China and Canada, Mr. Anthony Harford, Chairman of Republic Bank, Trinidad and Tobago, Director of ECLAC , Office-in-Charge of UNESCO, Representative of PAHO/WHO, UN resident Coordinator for , Members of the Media, Ladies and Gents , Good morning.

It is my honor and privilege today to welcome you all to the 9th Caribbean Meeting of the Ministers of Labour, taking place in Nassau, the Bahamas on 3-4 March 2015.

I wish to take the opportunity to thank the Prime Minister of the Bahamas for his presence and his active support to this important Caribbean gathering after a very well attended CARICOM Summit last week and to the Honourable Minister of Labour for his invaluable guidance and commitment, as well as that of each member of his team for an outstanding work in preparing this Meeting.

Thank you Honourable Minister Gibson for your leadership on the matter.

It is my duty and pleasure to introduce the Director General of the ILO, Mr. Guy Ryder and to welcome him to the Bahamas and to the Caribbean Meeting of the Ministers of Labour, for the second time in less than two years. Mr. Ryder participated in the previous Meeting of the Ministers of Labour in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in July 2013. Indeed, a very successful one which boosted interactions in the region and beyond and reinforced the collaboration with CARICOM and in particular through and with CEC and CCL.

Other collaborations were forged since that Meeting with UWI and with CCJ just to mention two.

I wish to thank you, DG for your interest for the Caribbean region and its innovation in implementing the labour agenda in the Caribbean and bringing it around the world.

You visited Trinidad and Tobago and met personally with all Ministers on the occasion of the eight Meeting in July 2013 and again you were able to chair the side event on climate change and decent work, organized in Lima, Peru on 13 October 2014 for the Caribbean constituents.

It was on that occasion that the Honourable Minister Gibson offered the beautiful venue of the Bahamas to host this Meeting to which you decided to participate in between a number of missions that you are undertaking just before the next Governing Body session.

I wish to note apart from the Governing Body (GB) sessions where meetings with the Delegation of Trinidad and Tobago representing the Caribbean at the GB are systematically organized, the Caribbean delegations to the International Labour Conference (ILC) meet with you regularly so that substantive dialogue is maintained at the highest level, advises are shared and needs expressed for the Office to ensure proper and effective follow-up.

I am sure that this meeting will provide fresh views in carrying out the Decent Work Agenda and the work of the ILO towards the definition of the SDGs and beyond a reinforced participation and role of the Caribbean in it.

Thank you