Georgetown : Secretary General (SG) of the Caribbean Community Irwin LaRocque said that CARICOM’s ongoing reform process has validated the relevance of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) as the platform from which to build the Community’s economic resilience.
He made this remark today at the Twenty-Fifth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM which is being held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The SG said that following a review of CSME’s operations by the Prime Ministerial Committee on Sunday, the next steps regarding the process would be presented to the conference. He said the Commission’s preliminary report will recommend that priority attention be focused on fiscal sustainability, including debt management, and promoting a conducive environment that would reduce regional impediments to investment and trade and spur private sector growth and development.
With regards to the reform process, he said a broad consensus was emerging on the strategic priorities for CARICOM in the next five years. The process was initially built around a five-year strategic plan for the community and a transformed secretariat.
“…The CARICOM brand must permeate all our institutions and activities as we seek to build our sense of identity,” he said.
Issues of growth, sustainable development, ICT, human resources and transportation are among the priorities that the Heads will also be deliberating on.
Speaking specifically about ICT, LaRoque said that it was both an enabler of socio-economic development, as well as a sector in its own right for creating employment, and called for it to be viewed as the new frontier for regional integration. “To enhance those possibilities, the creation of a single ICT space within our Community should be pursued vigorously in our efforts to bring technology to the people, while aiding in building our technological resilience,” he said.
He said that human development on the other hand, must be discussed from a holistic approach to the region’s education system. This would help to address the shortcomings and challenges that had been observed in human resource capacity in both public and private sectors.
