Jamaica PM wants more meaningful intergration

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding has urged Latin America and Caribbean countries to make a stronger effort to achieve more meaningful integration in the hemisphere.

He said the regional states can do it if they decide to go beyond mere collaboration or joint action in strategic areas.

Golding was speaking in Montego Bay, Jamaica at the Special Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Latin America and the Caribbean (CALC) on the theme of Integration and Development.

Golding noted that the various sub-groups of Latin American and Caribbean states have already made significant achievements toward integration and collaboration but noted that there is need for broader, sturdier co-operation to engage and benefit the countries, in terms of how they relate to each other and the rest of the world.

He told the CALC foreign ministers that while institutions of co-operation have been and continue to be built, it is equally important to facilitate and promote interaction among the people.

"It is the irony of our relationship that, although we are neighbours, we remain to a large extent neighbouring strangers. Our people encounter each other far more in faraway places than they do in our own neighbourhood," Golding said.

He added that travel is one way to achieve this, stating that special attention must be paid to facilitating easier travel within the region.

Golding also suggested that governments pay special attention to encouraging more exchanges between the people of the region, especially in the areas of tourism, culture and sports.

"With more than 570 million people with the most diverse mix of race, colour and ethnicity, abundance of natural resources, we have more than enough to sustain ourselves and make our people prosperous," he said.

The prime minister said there are synergies that can be derived from working more closely than in the past, but the countries have looked, separately and individually, beyond the region for opportunities to strengthen their economies and provide a better life for their people.

Golding welcomed Brazil's initiative in convening a meeting of Latin America and the Caribbean leaders.

The December 2008 meeting culminated in the Salvador Declaration, which calls for "an action plan to explore the modalities and mechanisms that would enable us to advance the process of integration and development within the region,” Golding said.

The CALC meeting, chaired by Jamaica’s Foreign Minister Dr. Kenneth Baugh, focused on issues pertaining to the integration and development of the Latin America and Caribbean region.

The ministers also focused on current global challenges, such as the ongoing economic crisis and energy, food and climate change issues.