–free movement, CSME high on Heads of Gov’t agenda, CARICOM Secretary-General says

SIGNIFICANT achievements have been made over the last few months in various areas in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) during President, Dr Irfaan Ali’s tenure as Chairman of the bloc.

This was highlighted by CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr. Carla Barnett, during the opening ceremony of the 47th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community at St George’s University, Grenada, on Sunday.

According to Dr. Barnett, since the last face-to-face meeting of the heads which was held in Guyana in February, the community has been guided by decisiveness, determination and energy by the outgoing chair, President Ali.

“There have been notable achievements under his chairmanship, including increased engagement with Africa and the Middle East, advances on initiatives to increase the region’s food and nutrition security and arrangements to widen the membership of CARICOM,” Dr. Barnett said.

She added that there have also been other notable advances in other areas, including managing the crises in CARICOM member state, Haiti, where a transitional presidential council has been established through which a new cabinet was appointed.

As such, she said the critical role played by CARICOM Heads of Government and the Eminent Persons Group in bringing Haiti to the point of a transitional government must be noted.
Meanwhile, the Secretary-General added that there are several critical discussions and decisions to be made at the 47th meeting of the heads.

She said: “The free movement of nationals in the community, the provision of a reliable and cost-effective regional transportation system, establishment of the CARICOM single market and economy, economic and political co-operation and common market instruments, as our countries reinforce resilience and growth, it is critical that this 47th regular meeting advances these and other discussions and decisions intrinsic to the objectives of CARICOM integration.”

With that, she went on to add that the Caribbean’s integration movement has entered into the second half of its journey to a century, as CARICOM celebrated its 50th-anniversary last year.
“As we celebrated our 50th anniversary during last year, we took stock of our achievements and evaluated our faithfulness to the ideals of our integration movement, even as we acknowledge that there is still much more work to be done,” she expressed.

Further, Dr Barnett indicated that there is no denying that there are many noteworthy successes, as CARICOM has led and supported hemispheric and global measures that have influenced the thinking of major countries around the world.