STRENGTHEN RELATIONS WITH PRIVATE SECTOR – SECRETARY-GENERAL LAROCQUE TELLS COTED

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The need for the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) to strengthen relations with the private sector was one of the key messages Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), gave to the Region’s Trade Ministers at the Opening Ceremony of the Council’s two-day Thirty-Third Meeting.

He referred to the feedback he had been receiving from the business community during his official visits to Member States; the ranking of CARICOM countries on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index, as well as to the interest in foreign investment in the Region from traditional partners and major emerging nations. Several private sector missions, he said, were also being mounted to the Community.

“The onus is therefore on the Community and its Member States to do what is necessary to capitalize on the opportunities which these missions may bring. This task involves the strengthening of relations with the private sector, who are the ones who actually trade and create jobs.

“Perhaps the time is now for a more structures interface between this Council and the regional private sector and in doing so, include other stakeholders such as labour,” Secretary-General LaRocque said.

Pointing to the need for greater focus on the Region’s productive sector and its competitiveness, and the role of the private sector in this regard, the Secretary-General said that his recent interactions with the sector had indicated a pressing need for a review of governmental processes for the conduct of business which had a bearing on the cost of doing business in the Community.

The private sector is of the view, the Secretary-General said, that those matters should be addressed, as well as the harmonisation of procedures across the Community.

“…It would result in more active cross-border trading and investment and increase our overall competitiveness. The item on the agenda dealing with harmonisation of the legislation relating to the Rights of Establishment begins to address such concerns,” he said.

In her remarks to the Meeting, Chair of COTED, Senator the Honourable Maxine McClean, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados, recognized that the support and participation of the private sector was integral to COTED’s work.

“We must seek to regularize our interaction with the private sector. I recall the proposal from one of my colleagues for the COTED to institute a mechanism for regular interaction with the private sector in order discuss matters of mutual interest in a constructive manner. I urge us to give due consideration to this proposal,” she told delegates.