CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington warned that time was not on the region’s side.

CARICOM leaders open summit in Bahamas

 

NASSAU, The Bahamas, CMC - Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government Friday opened their 19th intersessional summit with the governments of Barbados and the Bahamas restating their strong commitment to regional integration, in the face of a strong warning from the CARICOM Secretary General that time was not on the region’s side.

 

“Time is not on our side if we are to safeguard our security. Time is not on our side if we are to achieve the goal of a single market and economy in the time frame that you as heads of government have set and time is not on our side if we are to achieve the Community for all, as you heads of government so hopefully scri pted in your declaration at Needham Point that you adopted last July in Barbados,” said Carrington in his address to the opening of the two-day meeting taking place at the Sheraton Cable Beach Resort in Nassau.

 

Missing from this morning's opening were the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and the Chief Minister of Montserrat Dr. Lowell Lewis – both of whom have recently been faced with domestic challenges and have opted to send representatives to the meeting. Guyana’s president Bharrat Jagdeo has opted to attend 20th meeting of the RIO Group being held in the Dominican Republic.

 

 Also absent were Haiti's Rene Preval and St.Lucia's Stephenson King, who was at the time of the opening, was receiving Britain's Prince Charles for a one-day visit.


But attending his first CARICOM summit since taking over the reins of government in Barbados after the January 15 general elections, Prime Minister David Thompson reiterated his country's commitment to the objectives of the regional grouping.

 

In fact, he pointed out that though a change in administration often signalled a change in policy, such would not be the case as far as Barbados’ commitment to CARICOM was concerned.

 

“The government and people of Barbados remain resolutely committed to the ideals, principles and business of CARICOM,” said Thompson, who replaces his predecessor Owen Arthur at the CARICOM table.

 

Foremost on the agenda of the Bahamas meeting are issues of crime, security and trade.

 

Thompson also expressed hope that the two-day meeting would signal a “watershed” in the development of the region and that its outcome could be deemed as “fruitful”.

 

“We need to take fresh guard knowing where each of us stands on the critical issues and to breathe a new sense of focus and purpose to our regional movement.

 

“Our agenda must be that of the collective populations that we represent and we need to each sign on philosophically to a precise flight plan for getting to our destination,” said Thompson, who is the outgoing Chairman of CARICOM.

 

Meantime, the Incoming Chairman Hubert Ingraham said that while the Bahamas currently does not participate in the Single Economy arrangements, it still wants to play its part.

 

In this vein, Ingraham said he was in full agreement with the position taken at the last heads of government summit in Barbados to pursue functional cooperation as the principle vehicle for taking forward the region’s integration. 

 

“This very correctly in my view moved the focus of our cooperation and collaboration away from the mechanics of economic integration and towards investment in human and social development of the people of the Caribbean Community,” he said.
 

“This shift, which in no way demeans or reduces the importance of the Community’s goal of  achieving a Single Market and Economy  permits the Community to develop proper mechanisms to increase the participation of non CSME member states like the Bahamas in all of the cooperative activities of the Community ,"  he told the gathering that also included the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Don McKinnon, the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation Jacques Diouf and other regional and international dignitaries.

 

“I believe that this continuing effort by Caribbean leaders to reorganize and redefine the Community’s institutions to better respond to the needs of the Caribbean people will ensure the sustained relevance of the Community to all our people,” he added.

 

CMC/kj/bm/08