Dear Editor,
I had the privilege and honour of being a member of Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley’s delegation to the 18th CARICOM Heads of Government Conference on the CSME in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad on the 3rd and 4th of December 2018.
In my estimation, this particular CARICOM Heads of Government Conference will go down in history as a major “breakthrough” conference – a conference in which the leadership of the Caribbean Community took a critical and irreversible turn towards the establishment of a concrete “production-integration” agenda for CARICOM and towards the development of the necessary inclusive economic planning and decision-making structures that MUST undergird concrete and implementable “production-integration” economic projects.
Evidence of such a burgeoning production-integration agenda may be found in the forcefully expressed commitment of our Heads of Government to the following projects:
(1) The establishment – in collaboration with the Caribbean private sector and organized labour – of a “fast ferry” maritime transportation system linking our CARICOM member states together.
(2) The delivery – in collaboration with our Caribbean private sector and organized labour – of the long planned and highly anticipated Caribbean Food Production project.
(3) The creation – in collaboration with our Caribbean private sector and organized labour – of a comprehensive Pan-Caribbean news and information network.
(4) The creation – in collaboration with our Caribbean private sector and organized labour – of new financial instruments to leverage the US $47 billion in savings that Caribbean citizens currently deposit in regional bank accounts at an almost non-existent interest rate, and to deploy a portion of these financial resources in the form of desperately needed investment capital – investment capital that will earn significantly higher rates of interest for our people.
(5) The development – in collaboration with Caribbean private sector and organized labour – of a new Renewable Energy industry.
The key phrase in all of these important production-integration agenda items is “in collaboration with our Caribbean private sector and organized labour”.
The emphasis by our Heads of Government on a commitment to collaborate with the private sector and organized labour in the planning and executing of regional economic development projects emerged naturally and organically out of the intense interaction which the Heads of Government had with key leaders of the Caribbean business sector and with the regional Trade Union movement at the very commencement of the Conference.
You see – in keeping with the wishes of Prime Minister Mottley, the Prime Minister with lead responsibility for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy – a representative grouping of Caribbean business leaders and trade unionists addressed the Conference.
The spokespersons of this private sector/labour movement grouping included Trinidad and Tobago private sector leader Mr. Christian Mouttet, Mr. Michael Annisette of the National Trade Union Centre and the Caribbean Congress of Labour, Mr. Gervais Warner of the Massy Group of companies, and Mr. Ralph “Bizzy” Williams of Barbados’ Williams Industries, among others.
Having heard from the business and trade union leaders and digested their declarations of support for the CSME project and their willingness to collaborate with regional governments and with the CARICOM Secretariat in planning and implementing regional economic development projects, the Heads of Government declared a commitment to ensure that – going forward – representatives of the Caribbean business community and of the regional Labour Movement will be included in virtually all of the planning and decision-making processes of the Community.
In addition, the Heads of Government made an extremely significant decision to amend the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas in order to include the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) and a new representative body of the Caribbean Private Sector as “associate institutions” of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
This new development will complement and add strength and reach to the decision that has already been taken by the Heads of Government mandating the Government of every single CARICOM member state to establish – at the national level – a “Business, Labour, and Civil Society Advisory Council” on CARICOM.
This national institution – known as the BLAC – is to be the location of consultations (at a national level) between government, the private sector, the trade union movement, and the wider civil society on all aspects of the Caribbean integration agenda.
Thus, we are finally beginning to see in our regional integration movement the emergence of a critical mechanism and methodology for inclusive regional economic planning, decision-making, and implementation!
It seems to me that we are gradually finding our way towards the indispensable economic planning mechanisms that will put us in a position to be able to establish a concrete and meaningful industrial development plan for our Caribbean Community, inclusive of a detailed and coordinated strategy to develop well planned import substituting industries to tackle our collective US $4 billion annual food import bill and our US $6 billion annual trade deficit with the outside world.
I fervently believe that CARICOM turned the proverbial corner at the 18th Special Heads of Government Conference in Trinidad. And it now behoves all sectors of our regional society to take note of this new development and to play our own roles in supporting it and taking it forward.
David Comissiong,
Ambassador to CARICOM,
Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade
