BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – Amidst growing concern about the poor implementation of mandates from previous meetings, the Barbados government on Thursday said it fully supports its Caribbean Community (Caricom) neighbour Trinidad and Tobago in hosting the Fifth Summit of the Americas in 2009.

Addressing the opening session of the Third Meeting of the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG), Junior Foreign Affairs Minister Donville Inniss said Barbados strongly backed Port of Spain’s efforts to ensure that the focus of the summit is on effective implementation and results, with the goal of achieving tangible and sustainable benefits for the people of the Western Hemisphere.

“This approach is all the more vital given the current turbulence and instability in the global economy,” Inniss said.

“We are confronted by rising costs of living, soaring food and energy prices, declining economic growth and mounting levels of inflation – pressures which are taking their toll on both developed and developing countries. Indeed, the entire hemisphere, with very few exceptions, is under strain.”

Inniss added that key economic sectors such as travel, tourism and manufacturing which were crucial to small vulnerable economies in the region have been most severely affected.

“Other significant challenges facing us include HIV/AIDS, non-communicable diseases, natural disasters, environmental and climate change issues, illicit drugs, crime and multi-dimensional threats to security,” he said.

Organisation of American States (OAS) Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin, who addressed the opening ceremony, pledged the hemispheric body’s continued commitment to assist, in whatever way it can, to make the meeting of the 34 leaders of the Western Hemisphere a success.

However, he too pointed to the importance of implementation.

“You can set the mandate, you can agree on a target, but if you don’t implement it, enforce it, it will not mean anything to anybody,” Ramdin said.

“So it is important to focus on implementation mechanisms both domestically; who is going to do what within the country with that mandate.and who is going to do what internationally.”

Ambassador Ramdin also pointed out that many countries in the region have been impacted by hurricanes that have caused floods and mudslides, destroying production capacity and setting back economies by many years.

He also added that the region continued to face unacceptable levels of poverty, social exclusion and discrimination, HIV/AIDS and illegal trafficking in drugs and firearms.

OAS member states attending the two-day meeting will consider the Draft Declaration that the Trinidad and Tobago government had formally presented at the Second Regular Meeting of the SIRG in Washington DC last July.

“The fact that this meeting is taking place in Barbados is evidence of the strong support that Trinidad and Tobago has received, and continues to receive, from our Caricom partners in the preparation for the Fifth Summit of the Americas,” Luis Alberto Rodriguez, national coordinator for the summit said.

“It also underscores our commitment. to make the Fifth Summit a truly Caribbean effort that provides the opportunity for all members states of our sub-region to come to the forefront of this renewed engagement with the other countries of our hemisphere, in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation.”