The region’s young people will not wait another ten years nor will they forgive present leaders for procrastination or lack of courage.
And Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, told her colleagues if they were serious about making the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) work, it was time to move past the talk.
Mottley was making her maiden address at the 39th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community(CARICOM) in Montego Bay, Jamaica, earlier this evening.
“Our political leadership must facilitate and shepherd, not control and stifle,” she told the gathering.
“What is most needed, I am convinced, is to give our people the scope to express their natural inclination to getting things to a conclusion in ways that are productive and beneficial to the region as a whole. Our people should not have to jump through hoops to make this happen.”
She pointed to the lack of movement on regional travel whether it was in the form of a ferry or the problems with LIAT and Caribbean Airlines.
Mottley said the free movement of people needed to be addressed. She announced Barbados would be removing the visa restrictions for Haiti – a signatory to the Revised Treaty of Chagauramas – because travellers outside of the region were allowed to do so every day.
The Prime Minister said there also needed to be better communication and sharing of information across the region. (SAT)
SHERRYLYN TOPPIN, sherrylynclarke@nationnews.com
