I have been requested to address you today on the role of small entrepreneurs in strengthening the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). I take this as a signal of your recognition that governments can only provide the enabling environment but that the private sector has to be the engine for growth and development. This is also an indication that you are already aware of the importance of your role because it is indeed a very big and critical role.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Professor Norman Girvan of the University of the West Indies, Institute of International Relations, makes strong recommendations for the development of common policies for major sector priorities, in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), over the period 2006-2011. These include, Domestic Agriculture, Sustainable Tourism, Transport, Energy, and Information and Communication Technologies.

The CARICOM Secretariat Census Unit is about to implement two (2) very important activities in its efforts to build/strengthen capacity to make more meaningful use of census data collected in the 2000 round of Population and Housing Censuses (PHC). On June 29 and 30, the Writers of the National Census Reports for the eighteen (18) participating Member States  will meet in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, to discuss the progress of the drafting of these reports.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Trinidad and Tobago has considerable expertise and experience in the energy sector, both private and public, and must therefore play a leadership role in the development and implementation of a regional energy policy.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Attempt less but implement more, was the advice offered by Professor Norman Girvan to Caribbean Policymakers and Stakeholders at Caribbean Connect in Barbados

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) “The CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) must evolve rapidly into more than just an economic community; it must be designed and implemented as a social, environmental and cultural Community.”

In considering the purposes to be served by this Symposium, we may wish to reflect on an observation by George Lamming_

“The architecture of our future is not only unfinished; the scaffolding has hardly gone up”.

It must be a matter for some gratification that over the past 18 months there has been more evidence than in the past of a determination to carry forward the work to bring A Single CARICOM Market and Economy into existence.

The Rt. Hon. Owen Arthur, Prime Minister Of Barbados, and CARICOM Head of Government coordinating implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), highlighted xenophobia as a factor undermining ready access to a regional pool of skills and labour.

Addressing the opening ceremony of Caribbean Connect, a High-Level three-day Symposium today in Bridgetown, on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), host Prime Minister Arthur cited the significant potential of a regional labour force in the new Community arrangement.