Former US President, Bill Clinton today made a case for the Caribbean Region to further unite, telling those present at the United Caribbean Forum at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre that the region would be “stronger together”. 

The former US President, is the Guest of Honour at the United Caribbean Forum, which was organized by the Dominican Republic (DR) Chamber of Commerce Guyana in collaboration with the Government of Guyana. 

As he addressed the forum in the presence of President Irfaan Ali this morning, Mr. Clinton said he hopes the forum and the partnership between the Dominican Republic and Guyana would breathe new life into the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). 

“So this partnership between governments and businesses and NGOs, between the Dominican Republic, and Guyana, I hope is the tip of the iceberg, I hope it will give new life to CARICOM, and new life to any other organization that is active here because you have this amazing opportunity to blend the strength of numbers with the strength of individual gifts…I hope I can come back a lot but if I don’t, just remember, we are almost always stronger together, we are almost always better cooperating than we are fighting, and we are almost always better emphasizing things that make us feel bigger, and trying to make, even our adversaries feel small. This is a big good thing, and I hope we can give life to it,” the former US President said. 

The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, is not a member of CARICOM. 

Mr. Clinton said he believes that by working much closer together, countries in the Americas can achieve greater progress.

“I believe for a long time, that the Americas need to work more closely together and, in many ways, the smallest countries by population are the most successful where economies of scale are not as important as personal contact and personal responsibility but it is hard to raise the capital to take all of the small countries forward, together, so you have this dilemma where in theory the smallest countries could be the most successful…. but it is hard to get people sometimes to invest,” he reasoned. 

Clinton said he is prepared to lend assistance through his organization – the Clinton Global Initiative – to provide the necessary support in bridging the gap and propelling the message of unity among the Americas. 

In his address, President Ali said through its partnership with the Dominican Republic, Guyana can narrow the existing gaps in the areas of technology, human resource development, tourism, services and food production among other critical areas. 

“We are applying world class technology, world class methods, best practices globally, that exist not today, that exist for tomorrow, we are applying that today, so that we can reduce the lag time to which Guyana would catch up with the rest of the world, and more importantly take a lead position on many issues. And, it is for this reason we see the DR as a critical partner in bridging this gap, when you speak about tourism, skill capacity in the private sector, leveraging capital, looking at the value-added industry, in food production, all of these things the DR would have not mastered but would have developed tremendous capacity and capability in,” President Ali said. 

The President also said there is tremendous opportunity for cooperation in the area of food production. 

The Dominican Republic (DR) Ambassador to Guyana, Ernesto Torres-Pereyra; US Ambassador to Guyana, Nicole Theriot; the European Union’s Ambassador to Guyana, Rene Van Nes and the British High Commissioner to Guyana, Jane Miller were among members of the diplomatic corps present at the meeting along with business executives and other guests.

Related posts:

Guyana pledges to continue push for peace and stability during Presidency of UN Security Council Outgoing US Ambassador pledges US Government’s continued support to Guyana in several areas President Ali pledges enhanced and stronger cooperation with Suriname Guyana among Caribbean Countries to benefit from Digital Education initiative