Following is an excerpt of the Welcome Remarks delivered by President Joseph Remy at the Launch on January 22, 2014 at the Capital Plaza Hotel.
The launch of the League’s Calendar of Events serves as a pointer for our continuous journey towards the total development of our member units and the wider national community. We believe that as an Umbrella Organisation, it is our responsibility to lead the charge in ensuring that all our units and their members are armed with the requisite competencies and knowledge to operate in this turbulent economic environment. It is imperative that we carefully examine the dynamic needs that are required for the sustainability and professional development of our movement. We are mindful of the need for continuous development and as such, we have structured a Calendar of Events that exemplifies that mix and balance of activities that would provide developmental opportunities at the individual and organizational level while recognizing the social responsibility of the Cooperative Credit Union Movement, particularly at this time in our country, where we are witnessing serious challenges to the social fabric of our society.
The League has committed to lift the image of the Movement in Trinidad and Tobago, and in that vein, we have structured our programme of activities such that it will be results oriented and will retain and enhance the confidence of our member units in the work and purpose of the League, while equipping the Movement with all the technical and professional competencies that will allow us to embark upon initiatives that would provide outcomes that will engender confidence among the wider national community in the Cooperative Business Model as an alternative means of socio-economic development.
We have carefully looked at the external environment and have designed programs that will allow us to not just respond but to take the lead in advocating the core principles of the Cooperative Movement. In this light, I would like to point out that part of our thrust this year would be a comprehensive advocacy program towards ensuring that the Legislative Agenda that is now being developed for the Movement would be one that is developed with the full endorsement of the Movement. I say this to say to the authorities that the Movement is not averse to enhanced Legislation and Regulations to govern the operations of Cooperatives, but we verily believe that any Legislation that would eventually be implemented to regulate the operations of Credit Unions, must be, and I wish to reemphasise that it must be done so with the pellucid and comprehensive endorsement of the entire Cooperative Credit Union Movement.
We all are well aware that when policies are foisted upon parties in an environment where there is a high degree of valid disillusionment and concerns, then the outcome of such actions never ever turns out to the benefit of any party to such impositions.
In that sense, I wish to say that the League took careful note of the Prime Ministers call for a national conversation wherein she stated that her Government would launch the largest coordinated national consultation in our nation’s history. The Prime Minister went on to state that this national conversation would be her Governments continuing progress report to the citizens and it will be a two-way conversation that gives the people the opportunity to direct the Government where and how they must proceed.
Well it would be remiss of me if I don’t take this opportunity to say directly to those Ministers responsible for the Regulation and Policy Direction of Cooperatives that League would like truth to be put to power and ensure that this stated conversation begin with the entire Cooperative Credit Union Movement so that we can say to the Government where and how to proceed with the Legislative Agenda that they have earmarked upon for the Cooperative Credit Union Movement. I believe that this is a golden opportunity for the wishes of the Prime Minister to be realised as together we must build our Country and advance a higher level of commitment to freedom, transparency and democracy. I wish to reiterate an ILO recommendation which articulates that there should be a framework within which Governments and social partners are encouraged to work to promote co-operative development.
In addition, I would like to quote from the International Labour Organisation recommendation which was adopted in 2002, which speaks to “Cooperatives as autonomous organizations of people "united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise". The Director-General of the ILO went on to state that Cooperatives have a potentially important part to play in the development of decent work, and stated that "guided by human and social values, Cooperatives draw on collective strength to promote the well-being of members, their families and their communities. They are important advocates for a globalization which recognizes and respects the rights, aspirations, needs and identity of people,"
Those fundamental principles and recommendations of the ILO has defined and distinguished and will continue to define and distinguish Cooperatives as distinctly different from any other socio-economic or financial institution. Those principles must be used as the benchmark for the design and development of any policy framework and Legislative Agenda for the Cooperative Credit Union Movement. This launch of our 2014 Calendar of Events, points the Movement in a direction that would certainly see us retooling and restructuring ourselves to come to the rescue of our beloved Twin Island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, which at this moment is seemingly headed in a direction of social, moral, spiritual and economical distress. We vow to continue our mission of adding value to the overall socio- development of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
