TWO regional heads of government, the secretary general of the Caribbean Community, as well as Washington’s envoy to Kingston, all had words of encouragement for Bruce Golding, who was yesterday sworn in as the nation’s eighth prime minister.

Prime Minister of Barbados Owen Arthur, who spent most of his adult life in Jamaica, said his only advice to the new prime minister was to lead the country the best way he can.

“I can only tell him to give of his very best… I go to work every day in Barbados to try to help the government achieve even by an inch,” Arthur told the Observer before the start of the inauguration ceremony at King’s House. “I don’t have the measurement, but I suppose that it works,” he added.

Michael Eugene Misick, chief minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands, urged Golding to optimise Jamaica’s fullest potential.

“Jamaica and Turks and Caicos have had a good relationship for many years.,” said Misick. “Jamaica has so much promise, so much potential and I hope that he is able to tap that potential and continue to (allow) Jamaica to grow from strength to strength and become the prosperous nation that it really can be.”

Edwin Carrington, secretary general of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), said the regional integration movement welcomed Prime Minister Golding and that he was pleased that the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) manifesto encouraged continued regionalism.

“I had the pleasure of looking at the manifesto with respect to Caricom, with respect to Cariforum, with respect to the negotiations now in train with the European Union and I am glad to say that in all three of these areas they are spot on and positive,” Carrington said.

“We welcome him wholeheartedly, we look forward to working with him… He has been a Caribbean man known to many of the current leaders in the region already and therefore the learning curve is already on the way.”

Similarly, in his inaugural speech, Prime Minister Golding pledged Jamaica’s commitment to Caricom.

Brenda LaGrange Johnson, United States ambassador to Jamaica, said the new prime minister’s speech was inspirational.

“I think that one of the things that was really inspiring was listening to Prime Minister Golding’s speech because he was inclusive and I think his reaching out to former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and having them work together is what is needed in Jamaica,” the US ambassador said.the Observer after the inauguration ceremony. The United States, she said, would continue to provide support for Jamaica.