PRIME MINISTER THE HONOURABLE BALDWIN SPENCER
FEATURE ADDRESS
at the
LAUNCH OF THE 2004 UNDP HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT

"CULTURAL LIBERTY IN TODAY'S DIVERSE WORLD"
on
MONDAY JULY 19, 2004
at
ROYAL ANTIGUAN HOTEL

Mr. Chairman;

His Excellency, the Governor General, Sir James Carlisle;

Honourable Ministers
of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda;

Other Honourable Senators and Members of the House of Representatives;

Excellencies of the Diplomatic Corps;

UNDP Officials;

Senior Government Officials;

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen;

Brothers and Sisters:

My first responsibility this evening gives me special pleasure.

It is my special pleasure to invite everyone here to join me in extending the warmest of welcomes to visiting officials of the United Nations Development Programme.

My second responsibility this evening gives me equal pleasure.

I invite everyone present to join me in thanking the Barbados Sub-Regional Office of the UNDP for selecting Antigua and Barbuda for the launch of the 2004 Human Development Report in the sub-region.

Since the early nineties, the Human Development Report has been setting the global benchmarks for people-centred development among the nations of the world.

The 2004 Human Development Report gives us the opportunity to see how Antigua and Barbuda is doing against the UNDP's benchmarks.

Since the birth, in the early nineties, of the governing party of Antigua and Barbuda, we have defined the soul of our organisation in a motto that is in close consonance with the essential focus of the UNDP.

The motto of the United Progressive Party is "People First".

Any examination of the governing party's Election Platform and the policies articulated and implemented by my Government would support this credo.

The 2004 Human Development Report is themed to and focuses on Cultural Liberty in Today's Diverse World.

The choice of Antigua and Barbuda for this evening's regional presentation of the UNDP Report must be seen as fitting and timely recognition of Antigua and Barbuda's emerging character as a true microcosm of the diversity of the wider Caribbean.

Increasingly, the cultural essences that make the Caribbean a world of its own are finding confluence in the cultural melting pot that Antigua and Barbuda has become.

To an extent unmatched in any other country in the region, immigrants from other sister islands are involved at the most significant levels in business, in politics, and in government.

My government came to office on the 23rd of March, this year, with strong multi-cultural support, and with a sharply defined commitment to celebrating the cultural diversity that enriches our society.

Indeed, one of my Government's key election commitments is the establishment of the Caribbean Festival Park.

The Caribbean Festival Park will be a permanent celebration of the rich cultural diversity of the Caribbean.

The Caribbean Festival Park will be a theme park that will showcase the cultural diversity of the region.

The Caribbean Festival Park will package and present the song, music, dance, art, craft and cuisines of the region to the world.

The Caribbean Festival Park will offer sustainable income opportunities and means of self-expression to all the immigrant communities that have chosen Antigua and Barbuda as their home.

We will break ground on this project in the Perry Bay area in just over three months.

It strikes me that a UNDP endorsement of and involvement in the Caribbean Festival Park would be logical, and would validate the Programme's focus on Multiculturalism this year.

My government is committed to cultural liberty and diversity in all its dimensions.

To this end, the first major legislative initiative of the United Progressive Party Government was the introduction of the Millennium Naturalisation Act.

The Millennium Naturalisation Act confers full and unconditional citizenship upon persons who were present in Antigua on the first day of the new millennium and have been resident here and in good standing since that day.

This immediately eliminates a number of impositions that have effectively made such persons second class citizens.

The government I lead has taken the unequivocal position that there will no longer be any second class citizens in Antigua and Barbuda.

I had the privilege of introducing the Millennium Naturalisation legislation in the House of Representatives and piloting its passage through Parliament.

The Millennium Act was sanctioned in both Houses of Parliament.

Last week, Sir Eustace Francis, our Acting Governor General, gave formal assent to the Millennium Naturalisation Act.

My Government support for the UNDP's Millennium Development Goals is manifest in a number of areas.

The current structure, institutions, policies and programmes of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda are geared to democratic governance; poverty eradication; environmental sustainability and inclusion.

To these ends, we have established a Ministry of Social Transformation and a Ministry of Human Development.

We have established a National Economic and Social Council drawn from all sectors of civil society and helping to formulate overall development strategy.

Prior to March 23rd this year, Antigua's sister island, Barbuda, was remote from the government.

Many Barbudans traditionally felt alienated from the central administration.

Now, the Member of Parliament for Barbuda is a Member of Cabinet and is poised for infrastructural and economic development at a level that had been systematically denied the Barbudan people.

We have mandated that ABS, the state owned television and radio broadcast system; reduce the cultural domination that comes with the indiscriminate overload of US television programming.

ABS has been mandated to expand local content, which must reflect the diversity of the society to a minimum of 30 per cent of all schedules.

We are pledged to multi-lingualism in our schools, and in the wider society.

We will introduce Equal Opportunity Legislation that will embody measures to deal with hate crimes.

Last month, I summarised my government's Charter for Good Governance to the nation.

That Charter is in close alignment with the UNDP's Millennium Development Goals.

In our view, Government exists to:

· Provide means for the representation of the diverse interests that make up our society.

· Offer a forum for reconciling the competing claims of those interests.

· Create and protect an open public sphere in which unconstrained debate about policy issues can ensue.

· Provide a diversity of public services including social security and a social safety net for the vulnerable in the society.

· Regulate market forces in the public interest and foster market competition where monopoly threatens.

· Foster social peace through strict control of the means of violence and through the provision of effective law enforcement agencies and extensive community policing.

· Enhance and sustain an effective system of law.

· Promote the active development of human capital through a core role in national development.


· Have a direct economic role, as a prime employer, in macro and micro economic intervention, where necessary to ensure social justice.

· Provide infrastructure commensurate to the requirements of a High Human Development nation aspiring to first world standard and status.

· Conduct the nation's business in the sunshine of public scrutiny.

· Provide a civilising influence; in reflecting widely-held norms and values, and also in helping to shape them, in the education system and elsewhere.

· Foster regional and transnational alliances and pursue global goals.

This is a summary of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda's Charter for Good Governance.

We are a small nation, but we are overwhelming in human worth and we aspire to be as good as the best among all nations.

As we open our doors and our arms to our Caribbean brothers and sisters, and to immigrants from beyond the region, we look to the UNDP and other international agencies to assist in our goal of becoming a model nation in the management of diversity and in every other measure.

The UNDP's Human Development Report will continue to provide the benchmarks against which we will position or efforts and our achievements in meeting the expectations of our population.

Within the framework I have described, I am pleased to launch Human Development Report 2004 and to accept it as a manual for good governance, compassionate leadership and sustainable development.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I thank you all for your attention.

May God Bless us all.