The Tribune

PRIME Minister Perry Christie announced yesterday the appointment of former director of culture Dr Nicollette Bethel and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and cultural icon Charles Carter as the co-chairs of the Bahamas’ 40th Independence Anniversary Steering Committee.

With this significant milestone being celebrated on July 10 next year, Mr Christie said it is important for the Bahamas to place itself in a “state of readiness” to mark the occasion with national celebrations and thanksgiving. Other committee members will be announced at a later date.

“Although July 10, 2013, will naturally be the focal point of the anniversary celebration, we would expect commemorative events – be they culture, educational, sporting, religious or otherwise – to be staged throughout 2013.

“This will be a major undertaking, one that will have to be executed with creativity, a grate sense of history, timeliness, and a scale appropriate to the occasion, while at the same time observing the news for budgetary discipline in these difficult times.

“This undertaking will require the full support not only of the government but relevant non-govermental organisations as well,” Mr Christie said.

This committee, the Prime Minister said, will be tasked with harnessing the patriotic support and involvement of the entire Bahamian community. “These celebrations next year must unfold against a backdrop of patriotism and love of the country, unsullied by partisan, racial or social divisions. As the words of our national anthem exhort us all to do, we must come together in ‘love and unity’ to celebrate our progress as a people, to give God thanks for preserving us these past 40 years of nationhood, and draw strength, wisdom and understanding from each other as well collectively chart the way forward for our nation.”

Mr Christie said a central part of the lead-up to the 40th anniversary will be a National Congress that will help build public involvement in, and popular consensus for, what his party’s Charter for Governance described as ‘Vision 2030’.

“Vision 2030 is all about looking forward and planning for the future. Instead of always thinking of national development in terms of one year increments as has historically been the case in the Bahamas, my government is determined to not only meets the immediate and short-term planning need for the nation but to simultaneously develop and implement longer-range planning for the future.

“This is where Vision 2030 comes in. It will focus on what the objective for national development should be – economically, environmentally, educationally, socially, and culturally – and what strategies and actions-plans will need to be put in train to activate those objective between now and the year 2030.

“The National Congress that will be convened next year for Vision 2030 will embrace the broadest possible cross-section of the Bahamian community. It is intended to cut across party lines and encourage instead a sense of common purpose.”