CAIC President calls for Caribbean gov’ts to reaffirm support to CARICOM

THE Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat is “constrained financially”, according to President of the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC), Ramesh Dookhoo, in an invited comment yesterday.

And he underscored the need for Caribbean governments to reaffirm their support to CARICOM, rather than allow the current status-quo, a significant dependency on foreign aid, to continue.
“He who pays the piper calls the tune,” Dookhoo said, adding that in some instances the agencies providing assistance to the Secretariat are the bodies that Caribbean governments have to engage for trade agreements.
He made it clear that CARICOM Member States must believe in the work of the Secretariat and make clear their support to allow the individual Member States and the Region as a whole to develop.
The CAIC President’s comments followed a presentation he made at the 38th meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), which was hosted at the Pegasus Hotel and ended yesterday.
At the opening of the session last Friday, Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, underscored the “critical role” of the private sector to the success of local economies and that of the Caribbean Region.
“The critical role of the private sector in the regional economy has been a matter of discussion in various fora in CARICOM for some time now. We have long recognised that the full involvement of the private sector was necessary in order to achieve our economic goals,” he said.
“An efficient and productive private sector, operating in a favourable business environment will be well placed to take advantage of the opportunities (that lie) both within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy and in the trade agreements which the Community is party to,” the Secretary-General said.
The Caribbean economy, in 2013, remained in low gear, held back by a less favourable external environment and, in some cases, domestic constraints, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report said.
The UN’s World Economic Situation and Prospects 2014 made similar observations, pointing out that growth in the Caribbean decelerated in 2013 to a pace of 2.6 percent. However, the forecast growth in the Region has been estimated at 3.6 and 4.1 percent in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

(By Vanessa Narine)