BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Oct 4, CMC – FORMER Commonwealth Secretary General Sir Shridath Ramphal on Saturday said the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will forever be in the debt of the late Frederick Cozier, the grouping’s first secretary general.Sir Shridath, the Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies and former Chairman of the West Indian Commission, hailed Cozier as “one of our quiet but committed builders of this Region’s institutions.”

Cozier, 94, served as CARICOM Secretary General from 1968-69 and the cause of his death has not been publicly revealed.
But Sir Shridath, who was then Attorney-General and Foreign Minister of Guyana, when Cozier came to the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat, said  “as a West Indian who shared the times of Fred Cozier’s roles in the emergence of the independent Caribbean and of CARIFTA and later CARICOM, his passing conjures up for me the creative excitement of those pioneering years.
“Fred’s was a safe pair of hands when we needed them – not just Barbados but the wider Caribbean. As the first Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign affairs of the newly independent Barbados, he helped to create his country’s foreign policy – a keystone of which was Caribbean regionalism.”
“In his capacity as the first Secretary-General of the then CARIFTA Secretariat in Georgetown, it was my privilege as then Attorney-General and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Guyana, to welcome him there and help him in his foundation-laying task.
“CARICOM is forever in his debt. I feel a personal sense of loss of one of our quiet but committed builders of this Region’s institutions,” said Sir Shridath.
When the Cabinet system in Barbados was introduced in 1958, Cozier was among the first group of permanent secretaries chosen to be in charge of the four ministries set up at the time.
In 1962, he was transferred to the post of permanent secretary to the Premier of Barbados and was to become the first Barbadian to hold the position of Cabinet Secretary.
When Barbados attained its Independence in 1966, Cozier was appointed to the newly established post of Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs with responsibility for the establishment of the Barbados Foreign Service and Overseas Missions.
From that position he was seconded in 1968 to be the first Secretary-General of the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA).