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The following six paragraphs are taken from Sir Ronald Sanders’ article, “CARICOM At 40: The Missing Agenda,” published on his web site on July 4, 2013.
http://www.sirronaldsanders.com/viewarticle.aspx?ID=378
It is difficult to identify more than four CARICOM countries that could survive on their own if grants and concessionary loans from external agencies and countries were removed from their revenues. As Owen Arthur the former Prime Minister of Barbados observed recently: “The price of insular nationalism has been onerous. The cost of separate national development has been such that maintaining viable economies and societies is proving to be a task that is spiralling out of the reach of most Caribbean Societies”.
He went on to make the important point that: “Nation building in the Caribbean therefore has to be driven, not by the present retreat from regional engagement, but by the philosophical commitment to make the region succeed through deploying more effective forms of regional co-operation”.
So what are the crucial areas that CARICOM governments could be addressing collectively that would bring benefits to the region as a whole and, consequently, to their countries individually. First, on the agenda should be completing the arrangements for the Single Market. Last year, in a public statement, the CARICOM Secretariat said there was 64% compliance among the member states. It identified major deficiencies in Free Movement of Services, the regime on the Right of Establishment and the regime for the Free Movement of Skills –things that matter to Caribbean people and businesses.
Then there are three matters that require urgent attention. These are: food security, regional maritime transportation and energy security. The region is now importing US$4 billion in food annually. Yet, Guyana, Suriname, Belize, Jamaica and Dominica produce enough food not only to feed the region but also to export. Closely tied to food security is sea transportation without which food produced in the region cannot be distributed. In turn this will call for categorization, regulation and modernisation of ports. Energy security has now become imperative particularly as, with the best will in the world, the Venezuelan government will not be able to continue the terms of the Petro Caribe arrangement that amounts to budgetary aid for many CARICOM states. The region has to develop its abundant resources of renewable energy to reduce costs and make itself competitive in manufacturing and tourism.
According to Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, China’s President Xi pledged US$3 billion in loans to the Caribbean for infrastructural and other development when he visited Port-of-Spain last month to meet 9 Caribbean leaders. If that pledge bears fruit, it would be beneficial to encourage Venezuela to join a relationship with the Chinese and CARICOM countries in which money is dedicated to regional spending on food security, maritime transportation and energy security. Such a development would encourage a range of public sector-private sector partnerships in shipping, port development, agriculture/fisheries and energy infrastructure that would lift the region economically, solve several of its pressing problems and float the national economies of CARICOM.
These investments are vital to improving the efficiency and competitiveness of CARICOM countries and to achieving a higher sustainable rate of economic growth to reduce the high debt of almost all of them and enhance the livelihood of their populations. It is such a big regional approach that is needed. After 40 years, petty and insular nationalism should end – its failure is evident.
http://www.sirronaldsanders.com/viewarticle.aspx?ID=378
It is difficult to identify more than four CARICOM countries that could survive on their own if grants and concessionary loans from external agencies and countries were removed from their revenues. As Owen Arthur the former Prime Minister of Barbados observed recently: “The price of insular nationalism has been onerous. The cost of separate national development has been such that maintaining viable economies and societies is proving to be a task that is spiralling out of the reach of most Caribbean Societies”.
He went on to make the important point that: “Nation building in the Caribbean therefore has to be driven, not by the present retreat from regional engagement, but by the philosophical commitment to make the region succeed through deploying more effective forms of regional co-operation”.
So what are the crucial areas that CARICOM governments could be addressing collectively that would bring benefits to the region as a whole and, consequently, to their countries individually. First, on the agenda should be completing the arrangements for the Single Market. Last year, in a public statement, the CARICOM Secretariat said there was 64% compliance among the member states. It identified major deficiencies in Free Movement of Services, the regime on the Right of Establishment and the regime for the Free Movement of Skills –things that matter to Caribbean people and businesses.
Then there are three matters that require urgent attention. These are: food security, regional maritime transportation and energy security. The region is now importing US$4 billion in food annually. Yet, Guyana, Suriname, Belize, Jamaica and Dominica produce enough food not only to feed the region but also to export. Closely tied to food security is sea transportation without which food produced in the region cannot be distributed. In turn this will call for categorization, regulation and modernisation of ports. Energy security has now become imperative particularly as, with the best will in the world, the Venezuelan government will not be able to continue the terms of the Petro Caribe arrangement that amounts to budgetary aid for many CARICOM states. The region has to develop its abundant resources of renewable energy to reduce costs and make itself competitive in manufacturing and tourism.
According to Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, China’s President Xi pledged US$3 billion in loans to the Caribbean for infrastructural and other development when he visited Port-of-Spain last month to meet 9 Caribbean leaders. If that pledge bears fruit, it would be beneficial to encourage Venezuela to join a relationship with the Chinese and CARICOM countries in which money is dedicated to regional spending on food security, maritime transportation and energy security. Such a development would encourage a range of public sector-private sector partnerships in shipping, port development, agriculture/fisheries and energy infrastructure that would lift the region economically, solve several of its pressing problems and float the national economies of CARICOM.
These investments are vital to improving the efficiency and competitiveness of CARICOM countries and to achieving a higher sustainable rate of economic growth to reduce the high debt of almost all of them and enhance the livelihood of their populations. It is such a big regional approach that is needed. After 40 years, petty and insular nationalism should end – its failure is evident.
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