This call was voiced by Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson in an address to local and regional journalists at Cara Lodge in Georgetown yesterday, during a briefing he hosted ahead of the official opening of the 30th Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government here in Guyana.

In his presentation, Thompson addressed the state of the CSME and the point it is at presently, amidst calls by commentators and political figures within the region that the integration process is in jeopardy due in no small part to the recent activities and policies implemented by some member states.

The Barbadian PM, who is also Head for the Single Market and Economy, recalled that the decisions taken at the 5th Heads meeting have had profound effect on where the region is to date, emphasizing too his Government’s commitment to the principles as set out in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

PM Thompson , detailing the struggles that the region has undergone to implement certain policies that have proven successful to date, posited that in order to progress, the region has to measure the way forward by acknowledging the way already travelled.

“It is easy, especially in times of economic crisis, for stakeholders to become impatient at what they see as the slow pace of the integration project, and to declare it dead on arrival,” the Barbadian PM said.

He recalled as well that in 1989, Michael Manley reminded that crisis, stagnation and economic recession have been the permanent bedfellows of CARICOM since its inception, engendering as a consequence, “the long period of near retreat from strategic purpose”.

Thompson acknowledged that in 2009, the region is again faced with global economic convulsions of unprecedented proportions.

“These circumstances only reinforce my conviction that regional integration is the last best hope for the Caribbean”, Prime Minister Thompson opined.

He added that now, in the midst of the global crisis and regional upheaval, is the time for CARICOM to retreat from its strategic purpose; it is time to regroup and refocus.

In further outlining the future of the Caribbean Community as a whole, he stated that Barbados has never seen its destiny as separate from that of its CARICOM neighbours.

He noted that it is against this background that his country is implementing the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and is also trying to live up to the moral obligation its feels towards its extended regional family.

“Now it will be evident that this is easier said than done, and certainly requires far more than fine words in speeches and communiqués; in fact it requires Barbados, and also all of CARICOM states, that we overhaul many existing institutions as well as create entirely new ones.” Thompson said.

Thompson posited that this requires a host of regional institutions to be put in place to deal with accreditation, standards and the exchange of information, among other issues, adding that if this is not done carefully, the region will endanger the fabric of the very societies that regional integration is aimed at sustaining.

“We live in age where the clamour is for instant results, no matter how complex the project at hand, or how difficult the external economic environment, and so of late there has been considerable public pessimism over the state of the CSME project. But what is the reality?”

He pointed to the growth of intra-regional trade since the implementation of the Single Market in 2006, and the establishment of the Caribbean Development Fund which is designed to assist disadvantaged countries.

Also, the provisions on the right of establishment as well as the free movement of goods, services, capital and skilled persons are being implemented, Thompson said.

Although the timeline for the implementation of the Single Economy has been delayed, Thompson stated that recent developments within the region have shown the true extent of the financial interdependence that already exists among member states, and have given new urgency to the policy coordination efforts to the regions’ regulators.

Externally the regional negotiating machinery has helped the region to conclude an Economic Partnership Agreement with Europe and is at present preparing the groundwork for the start of trade talks with Canada, the Prime Minister said.

“In the area of functional cooperation, CARICOM’s significant achievements have gone almost unheralded”, he posited.

He pointed to the harmonised systems that are in place in the areas of Education, Health, Climate Change, Disaster Response, Standards and Quality, Competition, Crime and Security, and the coming into being of the Caribbean Court of Justice.

“When you look dispassionately at what has in fact been achieved in regional integration against such formidable odds, it is difficult to understand the pessimism and the talk of failure,” Prime Minister Thompson remarked.

However, he acknowledged that the issue at the fore of all verbal wrangling within the region has to do with freedom of movement, observing that this is a fundamental issue around which much confusion and misunderstanding persist.

He stressed that it is important for all to understand is what the Treaty of Chaguaramas actually says and what it means.

The Barbados Head of State added that the Treaty states that member states commit themselves to the “goal” of the free movement of their nationals within the community, stressing that this is therefore an aspiration which the framers of the Treaty implicitly acknowledged ‘would have to be reached through a phased approach and not instantaneously’.

He stated that as regards the movement of skilled nationals and the five categories mapped out in the Treaty and the additional four agreed to by the Heads of Government at the 26th and 27th Heads meetings, Barbados is honouring all nine of these categories.

Thompson also stated that between 2000 and 2008 his government accepted over 1000 CARICOM skilled nationals from across the region, a significant number of which are Guyanese.

He said that since the implementation of the movement of skilled nationals within the region, only Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago has put in place national accreditation councils, and there is as yet no functioning regional body with the capacity to provide this important service.

Acknowledging that the Barbadian accreditation council does the most rigorous checks for which harsh criticisms have been heaped on them, Thompson pointed out that his government does not believe this should be a mere rubber stamp process.

“And let me tell you why; there are a lot of false documents floating around the Caribbean and some even pass through the hands of national certifying authorities” he stated.

However, he said that the category that has caused the greatest public commentary is that of the unskilled community national, reiterating that the Treaty does not, as a matter of law, provide for unrestricted freedom of movement within the Community, but rather it describes it as a goal for the region.