CARICOM opens with focus on economy; PM Kamla reiterates TT commitment

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding told the CARICOM summit Sunday the region’s economies have been "severely dislocated by the global recession" and that CARICOM does not have the resources or the fiscal space to support effective stimulus packages to refloat its economies.

"Our economies are naked, shivering for warmth in the blizzard of the global crisis,” he declared. "Some of the gains we made in the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals at considerable effort and sacrifice over the last decade have been eroded in the last two years."

He added that the global economy is not likely to be the same again and its new uncertain configuration is unlikely to be kind to the region’s small and open economies.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who also addressed the openng of the summit, spoke of the impact of the global crisis on the region’s socio-economic development.

he noted that while the Caribbean region has made some progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that include poverty eradication, it remains “highly vulnerable to external shocks”.

Ban said the international community cannot go back on its commitment to help the developing countries deal with the crisis.

He expressed gratitude to the region for its role in the development of the United Nations and urged CARICOM to continue the push for deepening of its own integration process.

"Get up, stand up and don’t give up the fight," he said, borrowing the lyrics of the late Jamaican reggae Icon, Bob Marley.

Outgoing CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica, said he is optimistic about the future and told leader "going back is not an option...Survival in these times do not allow for disconnect."

He added, "Shouting across the Caribbean seas ... benefits no one”. Skerrit said there are "genuine" issues affecting the regional integration movement that cannot be side stepped. However he acknowledged that "some member states are in a survival state" having to keep up with the changing global situation.

"The landscape around us has changed dramatically," he said adding, "we have achieved as much as we could under the circumstances”.

St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas said that the region is facing challenges "no one leader would have predicted" but added that "CARICOM will rise above the challenges as long as we continue to work together."

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the first female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, pledded strong commitment to CARICOM. However, she said CARICOM today finds itself confronted by new critical challenges that call for urgent responses.

"They include an expanding WTO (World Trade Organisation) regime devoid of provisions for development targeted by the DOHA Round of negotiations; geo-political fragmentation in the investment and trade systems of the Americas; increasing threats to national and regional security owing largely to drug trafficking in the region; escalating prices for imported energy products (and) growing threats to food security because of shortages and inflationary prices," she said.

Persad-Bissessar said that her People’s Partnership government wants a shift in the current emphasis of the Petroleum Fund that Port of Spain has been funding to assist under developed CARICOM countries.

She said that the new emphasis should be on the environment, education, women and the creation of a CARICOM Country Child Life Fund that would include the region’s private sector to help provide for children suffering from severe health problems.

"I am sure the citizens of every one of our Caribbean territories would welcome such an initiative so that children in urgent need of medical attention can access it.

“Imagine what it means to a parent to be told that their child is going to die because the medical attention required cannot be accessed due to lack of funds,” she said, adding “I can think of no better way to utilise the resources of the Petroleum Fund...and I urge that we explore this initiative”.

Persad-Bissessar said now is a good time fopr CARICOM to engage in self-examination to determine if it is achieving its objectives.

"The time has come for us to re-examine whether the dynamism and versatility of the external environment has impacted on our ability to chart a clear and consolidated pathway to regional development,” she said.