(CARICOM Secretariat)     THE Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) yesterday up its Thirty-Second Meeting in Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis, after a focused summit that laid the groundwork to advance the regional integration movement, the Hon Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, said.

Dr. Douglas, who is also Chair of the Conference of Heads of Government, used the opportunity at the conference’s closing ceremony and press conference to correct what he described as “misguided comments” with respect to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), a regional flagship programme. He reiterated the importance of ensuring a fully effective and efficient single market and the implementation of certain elements of the single economy to create an environment that was more conducive to investment and job creation in the region.

Prime Minister Douglas said that the Heads of Government paid particular attention to agriculture and transportation, two sectors that were critical to the integration project. The focus, he said, was on the movement towards agro-business enterprises in order to steer the community towards food and nutrition security.

While Dr. Douglas acknowledged that regional universities were placing more emphasis on agriculture and were producing graduates in the field, he lamented the fact that the graduates seemed not to be bridging the entrepreneurial divide towards agro-business.

There had to be a determined effort by universities and other entities to make those “appropriate links” to the benefit of the Caribbean people, Dr. Douglas stated, and called for the greater involvement of the private sector in agriculture and transportation.
With regard to the latter, Dr. Douglas acknowledged that while more affordable and reliable transportation was necessary for the movement of people and goods – major platforms of the CSME – sensitivities about air transport in the community had to be completely understood.

And responding to a query on limited access to television broadcasts from within the community, as against the plethora of broadcasts from outside the region, especially from the north, His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana, said that developing a regional sense of patrimony was absolutely necessary.
Viewing positive images of ourselves and prospects for our development, and understanding each other’s culture, would help to create a basis on which Heads of Government could work since “we will now have fertile, positive ground for the integration movement,” President Jagdeo said.

“If our people don’t see in a positive light what is happening in the region, they will begin to develop a sense that notionally, the values that the north generate are superior to our culture. That is taking us back into slavery,” he warned.
His colleague Heads of Government agreed.

According to His Excellency Desire Bouterse, President of Suriname, if the problems regarding communication and transportation were not solved, challenges could develop generally, and especially for the Community’s business people and its tourism sector.

The Hon. Tillman Thomas, Prime Minister of Grenada, and outgoing Chair of the Conference, referred to the services Radio Antilles once offered to the region and lamented that there was no longer such a medium to keep the populace informed.
He added that certain integration issues could not be addressed simply by the politicians, but needed to be driven by sections of the community including the regional media, the private sector, and labour unions.