The Valley -- August 2, 2007 -- Dr the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister and outgoing Chairman, Distinguished Prime Ministers and Ministers of Finance. A very special welcome to  Prime Minister, Dr the Right Honourable Keith Mitchell in his new capacity as Minister of Finance for Grenada and for the first time, the Acting Prime Minister of St. Lucia, the Honourable Stephenson King, who is standing in for Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Sir John Compton.

Sir John remains in our prayers for a full and speedy recovery and I would wish you Minister to convey our sincere best wishes to his family as well as to the Government and people of St. Lucia.

We are extremely happy to have the Governor of the Central Bank, Sir Dwight Venner, the management and staff of the ECCB, specially invited guests, and other distinguished ladies and gentlemen. Let me proudly welcome you all to our beautiful homeland Anguilla. And we expect that you will make time to experience the charming delights and unique hospitality for which we are renowned.

Please now join me in congratulating, Dr. the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, on his efficient and effective chairmanship over the past period.  His contribution to these meetings has always been both enlightening and entertaining. I do look forward to his support in the period ahead.

I am indeed honoured to accept the chairmanship of the Monetary Council for 2007/2008 during a time of historic importance for the member countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU), as we move boldly forward along a course of deeper integration through the establishment of a single economic and financial space.

Accordingly, our policy making must be consistent with the new modalities implicit in this emerging arrangement.   It is in this context, that I fully endorse the comments of the Governor in his foreword to the ECCB's Annual Report for 2006/2007, that the region must develop a clear and strategic response that would enable us to steer through a new regional and international economy.

The ECCB continues to be a success story for the region. Our economies have benefited from having a strong EC Dollar.  And there is no doubt that our sub-region may have become fragmented had it not been for this institution.  The ECCB as an institution is at the very heart of regional integration. A case in point, my own country Anguilla joined the ECCB a full ten years before becoming an associate member of the OECS. Our individual countries have all benefited from having the EC Dollar.  In dollars and cents this year alone some $15.7 million was distributed as profits from the ECCB and the net income for 2006/2007 was some $34.8 million.

As we move ahead in 2007 the economic outlook for the ECCU promises to be positive. This prediction is based on the generally favourable circumstances that the Currency Union continues to enjoy in the external environment. This expected growth in our economic activity will be driven largely by foreign direct investment financed construction activity and expansions in other non-traded sectors of the economy.