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PRIVATE SECTOR AND LABOUR AGREE: MORE EFFORT TO ADVANCE CSME

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Region’s private sector and labour are of one accord on the necessity for a more concerted effort by Member States to advance the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

At the opening ceremony of the convocation on the CSME Friday morning at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Conference Centre in Bridgetown, Barbados, the heads of the Caribbean Congress on Labour (CCL) and the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) both expressed disappointment at the pace of the integration movement’s flagship programme, and called on the Community to use the forum to determine the way forward, together.

While noting that the Convocation was timely, Ms. Jacqueline Jack, President of the CCL, said the Region could not be proud of the fact that key elements of the CSME were not in place some 20 years after the Grand Anse Declaration that laid the foundation for the CSME.

The CARICOM Single Market came into effect in January 2006 while the Single Economy is scheduled to come on stream in 2015.

She acknowledged the progress made with regard to the Free Movement of Capital and Harmonisation of Company Law, but told the gathering that the CCL was not happy at the “state of affairs in respect of the Free Movement of Labour.”

She said the umbrella labour body was still waiting to see measures put in place to realise, among other areas, the free movement of labour without barriers; removal of work permits; hassle-free travel; provisions for the transfer of social security benefits; and the harmonisation of labour laws.

Mr. Carol Evelyn, President of the CAIC, also stressed that much more needed to be done on the free movement of skills.

“The private sector is disheartened that entry into Member States is still at the whims and fancies of Immigration officers. Officers are yet to be trained and sensitized to the implementation of the regional approach to free movement of people and the hassle free movement of CARICOM nationals. As a result and as noted by our services providers, entrepreneurs still find it easier to enter a territory under the guise of vacation, despite the introduction of skills certificates,’ he said.

Pointing out that the free movement of people was a critical factor to the development of the regional private sector and ultimately, economic growth, Mr. Evelyn said the private sector could not effectively compete with extra-regional firms “if we are unable to recruit the best skills and talents from within the region through the CSME, or to move freely throughout the Region to provide services.”

Ms. Jack also expressed disappointment that labour was “no longer relevant or important.”

“…It is imperative that I remind participants at the Convocation that labour has played a most significant role in the development of this region. Labour has been in the vanguard of forging a United Caribbean long before the birth of Federation, CARIFTA, CARICOM and now the Caribbean Single Market and Economy and therefore labour will not opt out of the struggle to achieve the somewhat elusive goal Caribbean unity.

“However, it saddens me to see that instead of keeping labour as a significant partner, labour is being sidelined. The Caribbean Congress of Labour no longer has a place at the Conference of Heads of Government annual meetings where views are exchanged between the heads and civil society,” she said, arguing that it was a signal that labour was no longer relevant or important. She called for the revisiting of this decision.

Ms. Jack also urged participants to use the Convocation as a vehicle “not only to examine our failures, but rather, let us together determine how we can move forward – for we are living in tough times, having to deal with a global financial crisis, climate change and global warming, to name but a few.”

Stakeholders at the two-day Convocation will consider four core issues: the appraisal of the state of implementation of the CARICOM Single Market (CSM), a review of the Schedule of Free Movement of Persons, Contingent Rights, and the Single Economy.

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