(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) New Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, the Hon Baldwin Spencer has cited the issue of regional security as one of the most critical issues to be tackled by the Twenty-Ninth Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government.
Addressing the Opening Ceremony of the Meeting on Tuesday 1 July at the Sandals Grande Antigua Resort and Spa, Prime Minister Spencer asserted that the wave of violent crime across the Region had threatened Member States’ ability to secure their citizens.
This was a threat he said that could only be dealt with effectively by regional action.
“All our other efforts at economic development will succeed or flounder depending on how well we deal with the crime and security threats in our Region,” the CARICOM Chairman stated.
“I am persuaded that CARICOM needs to address the crime and security issues frontally as one, and devise bold and innovative solutions,” he added.
Prime Minister Spencer argued that while initiatives such as the CARICOM Maritime and Airspace Security Cooperation Agreement and the CARICOM Arrest Warrant Treaty were innovative and effective tools to deal with the threat of crime and security more had to be done.
As a result, he urged Member States to unite and act in the interest of the Region’s people.
“No country, big or small, has the capacity to solve problems such as drug-trafficking, climate change or escalating food prices on its own. We must act as one in the interest of the people of this Region.”
Further outlining the agenda for the three days of deliberations for the Conference, Chairman Spencer said one of the targeted outcomes of the meeting was to engage the Bureau of Heads in the vital function of driving the implementation of key decisions between regular Meetings and Inter-Sessionals.
Wednesday’s session of the Conference will focus on tourism, which the Chairman stated was “a common factor to Caribbean countries; the key contributor to our Region’s economies; and an industry under serious threat.”
And in this regard the Chairman also declared that the matter of a 17-percent cutback in airline services from tourism supply centres in the lower United States, together with increases in airfares and new airline charges were serious threats to the Region’s tourism driven economies and would be addressed thoroughly in the Session. He also assured those who had expressed concerns about the implications of the signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union, that the matter would be given careful consideration. “There is rising concern about the benefits that will flow our way from the EPA. My colleagues and I will give careful reflection to these concerns and will weigh them against the duty-free, quota-free access that the EPA promises,” the Chairman promised.
The CARICOM Chairman added that cementing of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) framework and the launch of the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) would also be treated in the meetings of the Summit.
He explained that the CDF was “a vital instrument that can propel CARICOM economic development into the future.”
He further noted that CARICOM was on the brink of creating a Single Economy and therefore needed to add a modern, open and democratic regional governance structure that would bring coherence and efficiency to the administrations of the Member States.
Other issues to be addressed at the Twenty-Ninth CARICOM Heads of Government Conference include Climate Change; the rise in energy costs by searching for alternative energy solutions; by achieving food security; by mitigation of rising food prices; and by promoting renewed focus on regional tourism in the context of current international trends.
