Trinidad and Tobago prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has once again stated her country’s continued commitment to the regional integration movement, while at the same time laying out a number of broad principles against which the process of co-operation can be further developed.
Speaking during a meeting of Heads of Government on July 2, 2011 the prime minister said, despite opinions to the contrary and in the face of “upheavals in the national community” which have impacted negatively on Caribbean societies, she was “of the view that CARICOM has made substantial progress.”
The region had, among a list of achievements, she said, “been able to develop a working Free Trade Regime to the benefit of our member states. And we have been able to establish a single market which includes the free trade in goods, the free trade in services, free movement of capital and free movement in skilled labour.”
She spoke also about collaboration and co-operation among CARICOM member states, in such other areas as health and safety, the security of citizens, in aviation, quality and standards, competition and in the area of justice.
Surveying the environment wrought on the basis of such developments, she said this 38th anniversary of the establishment of the movement ought to have been an occasion for celebration.
“Yet it does not seem to have generated that level of contentment which accompanies such attainment,” she said.
Expressing her own reasons for such a state of affairs, she said they included “unduly high expectations, implementation issues and the perennial inadequate resources.”
But in urging the region’s leaders and its peoples to look ahead, Persad-Bissessar said, “the age if adulthood should lead us to seriously examine if the obsession with survival and with making it through from day to day have not become an overwhelming inhibition to the kind of leap that is required to play a significant role in the world.”
Consistent with such thinking, she said the region’s leaders needed to “inject new life and fresh passion, more intense commitment to a CARICOM agenda of locating the Caribbean people in the world space.”
The leaders should ask and answer the question as to what space they wished to occupy “in the global village in the future,” she said.
It was her firm belief “that there is need for revolutionary thinking in that regard, because we live in an ICT driven world; and operate in an interconnected global community”.
Also addressing the crucial question of the feelings of the region’s youth, the prime minister said they should be invited “to be part of the future and to participate in creating the future. It is noteworthy that there is an increasing level of youth restlessness in all parts of the world, including our region.”
“We must not ignore this phenomenon,” she said. “This restlessness is a sign of a growing impatience with the inability of governments worldwide to efficiently, effectively and speedily deliver an acceptable quality of life, provide opportunities for employment and the fulfillment of potential and ensure citizen security.”
Failure to address these as urgent priorities, she said “can be disastrous for our economies and for social stability.”
On the question of what she termed the “implementation deficit” in CARICOM, the prime minister said, rather than being the result of lack of capacity, it could be more because of “a lack of adequate commitment,” which itself points to the need for a reassessment of CARICOM’s institutional structure.
Agreeing with views expressed at this summit and at others, about Trinidad and Tobago’s critical leadership role in CARICOM, in advancing the cause of its peoples, the prime minister spoke about the three ambassadorial appointments she has made, for representation in CARICOM.
She referred to the appointments of Ambassador Mervyn Assam as ambassador with responsibility for trade, Sir Edwin Carrington as ambassador to CARICOM and Makaandal Daaga as ambassador to CARICOM for cultural relations.
“I take our relationship and responsibility to CARICOM very seriously,” the prime minister said.
