(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) As the CARICOM Single Market enters its fourth year of operation, Heads of Government will next week review its performance and place focus on the movement towards the establishment of the Single Economy.
The Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) meets in Bridgetown, Barbados on 30 January 2009, and will focus on key elements of the CSME, the Community’s flagship programme.
It would be the fifth Meeting of this Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee.
A status report on the Free Movement of Persons will be presented to the Sub-Committee which has as its core members the Heads of Government of Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
That report will address the incidence of movement for those categories of persons already agreed by the Heads of Government and any problems that have arisen. It will also provide a review of the schedule for free movement of community nationals.
So far, the approved categories of persons who can freely move and work in Member States that are participating in the CSME are: university graduates, media workers, sportspersons, artistes, musicians, artisans, holders of associate degrees and equivalent qualifications, teachers and nurses. The Community has identified 2009 as the year for full and free movement of labour within the CSME.
The rights of those agreed categories of persons – which had been the focus of several meetings in the last quarter of 2008 – will also be addressed.
With regard to the Single Economy and related challenges, the Meeting will consider the integration and harmonization of key areas including monetary cooperation and fiscal policy and will also deliberate on the required level of commitment, participation and engagement in the Single Economy process.
In the context of recent developments which have an impact on the CSME, the Meeting will discuss the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) which was launched last July, and economic development trends and challenges.
The decision, in 1989, to establish the CSME was a move to deepen the integration movement to better respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by globalization. The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, the founding Treaty of the Community, establishes the legal framework for implementation of the CSME.
The CARICOM Single Market came into existence on 1 January 2006 with the signatories of six Member States, viz., Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Belize and Suriname. The Single Economy is expected to be established by 2015.
The Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee will follow the Thirteenth Meeting of the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP), on 29 January 2009, also in Bridgetown. COFAP’s agenda includes preparation for the Single Economy and updates on the Single Market.
