By Liz Rahaman
Heads of Government of the six Eastern Caribbean States — St. Kitts/Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Grenada and St. Lucia — on Monday gave their commitment to join the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) by July 2008.
At their sub-regional meeting last week, the six governments — which had expressed concerns over the Alien Land Holding License and the benefits to the smaller economies from the establishment of a Regional Development Fund (RDF) — have now joined their counterparts of Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname and Belize in the common market.
Incoming Chairman of the Caribbean Community, St. Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas, in his address at the CARICOM conference, said that while the OECS members are disappointed that the RDF was not operationalized in January of this year — when the Single Market was launched — they have been assured that the Fund is to become an integral part of the complete CSME.
The creation of the RDF to the tune of US$100M is to assist the lesser developed economies, sectors and firms.
“From our perspective, optimal use of the Fund requires careful targeting of its resources to achieve balanced development in every member state of the Community,” Douglas said. “It is therefore essential that the arrangements put in place for the governance of the Fund take full cognizance of this imp ortant objective and that these arrangements be sufficiently flexible and nimble to effectively deal with unanticipated imbalances and asymmetries that arise from time to time as the provisions of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas are infact implemented.”
But while the Outgoing Chairman of the Community expressed his happiness that the six countries have joined the CSME family, Prime Minister Patrick Manning noted the engine of a common market would not fire at full capacity until the single economy comes into place.
“It is this destination which will provide us with the full throttle to ensure that our nations can succeed in the ongoing and increasingly competitive global race for development,” Manning said.
He added that a single market is inadequate to generate the level of deve lopment needed in the region.
“We in CARICOM must shed our mental shackles on this important matter. It is most essential for the way forward. Notwithstanding technological progress, human capital continues to be the most important factor of the productive process. No progress is possible without the human kind,” he added.
Against this background, Manning urged peoples of the Caribbean to adopt new attitudes to accommodate the free movement of labour, skills and services as provided in the protocols of the Revised Treaty.
“We must change our attitudes to one another in fundamental ways in the Caribbean,” he emphasised and added that collective support as shown for the West Indies cricket team, would not make for a civilised community.
< span lang=EN-GB>“The Single Market still leaves us in our little cocoons. It is the one economy that will unleash the energies and potentials of the people and make their unity unstoppable.”
In her maiden address to the Conference, Jamaica’s newly elected Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, supported Manning’s call for a change in attitude but noted this would require intensified public education awareness to foster better understanding, involvement and support.
She said that the integration process must take place with significant contribution from critical thinkers, the private sectors and all the peoples from across the region.
