Heads to re-evaluate CARICOM Single Economy deadlines

Hon. David Thompson

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) 13 03 2010…Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will in July re-evaluate the deadline for implementation of certain aspects of the CARICOM Single Economy (CSE), the Hon. David Thompson, Prime Minister of Barbados said Friday.

The Single Market component of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) the Community’s flagship programme, was established in 2006. The Single Economy is anticipated to be in place by 2015.

“It is clear though that in July (at the Thirty-First CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting) what we will have to do is re-evaluate the deadlines that were set for the implementation of certain things and to identify more reasonable targets for that implementation,” Prime Minister Thompson said

At a press conference on the final day of the Twenty-First Intersessional Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government in Roseau, Dominica, Prime Minister said the tough economic circumstances had an impact on the ability of Member States to implement aspects of the Single Economy.

The domestic challenges spurred by the global economic and financial downturn meant that CARICOM Member States could not focus on the policy initiatives that would have seen progress on the Single Economy.

“That is only natural, we are small islands with limited human resources in our public sector; even our private sectors which are very much a part of the development of the Single Economy are battling with big challenges,” he said.

What was needed now, he told representatives of the media, was to collate all of the individual development strategies, plans and short-term strategies to see if they were consonant with the Single Economy.