It was with mixed feelings and a pinch of sadness that I learned about the stepping down of His Excellency Edwin Carrington from the helm of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as of December 31, 2010. The only consolation I got was that he will finally have the opportunity to spend some quality time with his family and loved ones.
For the Caribbean Community, it is rather sad news, and soon the region will realize the dangerous impact of the vacuum that a transition could create. I do hope that His Excellency will have the strength to continue advising and guiding with a much better listening ear.As observers, from outside the box, such as in our case, the Dutch OCTs, quite often we are flabbergasted by the lack of regional coherence in implementing the multiple CARICOM initiatives during the last two decades.
I would like to share with you some of these initiatives:
The CSME:
As the fundamental base in the objective of CARICOM, we have been noticing an incredible preparation work being done for the CSME. Multiple meetings, workshops, reports, protocols and agreements, most of which were approved and signed, unfortunately, we did also notice that often they were hardly officialised and implemented by the member states.
This has resulted in an obvious lack of regional interaction, collaboration and economic partnership. This form of stagnation has led to a substantial slow down in the region preparedness to compete in this era of world economic globalization.
Regardless of the obvious similarities of the region and notwithstanding the outside influence and pressure diplomatically or financially advising the region to do so, no real effort was ever been individually done by the member states to officially recognize the urgent need for a true regional economic and social integration, this is noticeable not only between the 15 CARICOM member states, but also with the rest of the region, Dutch, British, French and independent.
As an example, the two historic initiatives of His Excellency to officially visit Curacao and Sint Maarten, has not been followed by any other visit by any official from the 15 member states.
The Regional Public Private Partnership:
Recognizing the private sector as a fully-fledged partner, CARICOM has been a fervent promoter of dialogue, interaction and collaboration, not only with individual consultants but with almost all organizations representing the private sector.
From those dialogues during the last decades, several initiatives, directly or indirectly linked to the private sector, were established, such as the CARIFORUM, the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), the Caribbean Business Council (CBC), the Caribbean Court of Justice, PANCAP, the Caribbean Development Fund and many initiatives in Agriculture including CAPA.
So many well designed tools that, unfortunately, are still not optimally functioning as they are intended to be? Such important mechanisms, that I hope Sint Maarten can make use of some of them in the near future.
The Regional SME Development:
Through the years of struggle of the SME sector, it is obvious that it is still not being considered vital for the economy. To date the regional SME development has never been a priority, individually and regionally.
As far as history can show, the SME topic was never even debated in any of the multiple heads of states meetings. The latest effort made by CARICOM to establish a private sector/SME desk within the Secretariat has yet to receive the proper recognition and support by all the member states and ensure a real functioning Caribbean Association of SMEs, regardless of its geographic location.
The International Exposure, Recognition and Partnership:
The region has never had a real and effective exposure to the rest of the world like we have been experiencing the last few years. Indeed, under the creative initiative of His Excellency, the region has lately acquired serious attention from many “donor countries”, the most noticeable are from Europe, Canada, Central and Latin America and China.
In fact, to my recollection, it is the first time that the Caribbean was well represented in the historic Shanghai Expo.
Unfortunately, the real collective effort to maximize on these initiatives is lacking and in certain cases some have opted for a personal approach in the sole benefit of their individual economies, without any regional vision and/or collaboration.
These are my thoughts about some of these issues. I hope and pray that whatever changes to be made starting January 2011 will be made in respect of the work done so far and that the decision makers will have the wisdom to continue in the same path without any political and personal interference.
CARICOM is and should always be about continuity and the democratic system as having a rotating chairmanship every six months should favour this principal. What should be considered, though, is the instauration of a mechanism of organizational discipline, as in the case of the European Union where, when decisions that are collectively taken, must be individually implemented by all member states or face consequences.
This will certainly establish a much better competitive edge to the wider Caribbean and will definitely minimize the present syndrome of what I call the “Bermuda Triangle”: Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica.
November 11, 2010
caribbeannewsnow
