Bridgetown (The Nation):

THE University of the West Indies' (UWI) Cave Hill campus yesterday took time out to honour illustrious CARICOM son Sir Shridath Ramphal.

The occasion was a luncheon and the official naming ceremony for the Shridath Ramphal Centre For International Trade Law, Policy And Services in the rapidly expanding UWI complex.

The centre was established as far back as 2006, but officials said difficulties in getting Sir Shridath to attend because of his heavy business and travel schedules led to the postponement of the official launch.

Remarkable contributions

UWI principal and pro-vice-chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles said Sir Shridath, a former Commonwealth secretary general, had made "remarkable and very distinguished contributions" to regional and international development.

He explained that the centre was named after the former UWI chancellor "in respect of his historic leadership" in the area of international trade law, policy and services.

He also reported that establishing centres for integration studies, Law of the Sea and international finance were all part of the strategy to strengthen "our teaching and research output in the area of international trade law, policy and services".

Addressing luncheon guests, including former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, Sir Shridath said the UWI's decision to name the centre after him was a source of everlasting gratitude.

The 80-year-old elder statesman said he believed his generation tried, "and to the extent that it succeeded in anything, it was due to a determination to think our way through".

'Mightily rich

He described the Caribbean as relatively poor in materials but "mightily rich" in its human resources, human capacity and its capacity to think.

There was a time when "out of these little islands came that intellectual leadership that galvanised what we came to call the African, Caribbean and Pacific" group of states, he recalled.