Press Releases

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.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The operationalisation of the regional Development Fund will represent an instance of shared sovereignty among CARICOM Governments, and dispel some of the unfounded concerns about the loss of national sovereignty with the deepening of our economic integration process, said CARICOM Secretary-General His Excellency Edwin Carrington .

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Prime Minister of Barbados, the Rt Hon Owen Arthur told a High-Level three day Symposium, on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in Barbados on Wednesday 28 June that “we are very near to church, but still far from God. But we must persevere.”

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) CARICOM Secretary-General H.E. Edwin Carrington, in his welcome remarks to a distinguished gathering at the Sherbourne Conference Centre in Barbados on Wednesday 28 June, pointed to “early harvest” in the CARICOM Single Economy process.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Hon. Patrick Manning, Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), sees the CARICOM Single Market as one of the most important milestones in the development of Caribbean regional integration.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The operationalisation of the regional Development Fund will represent an instance of shared sovereignty among CARICOM Governments, and dispel some of the unfounded concerns about the loss of national sovereignty with the deepening of our economic integration process, said CARICOM Secretary-General His Excellency Edwin Carrington .

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Prime Minister of Barbados, the Rt Hon Owen Arthur told a High-Level three day Symposium, on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in Barbados on Wednesday 28 June that “we are very near to church, but still far from God. But we must persevere.” Prime Minister Arthur said that “the substantial benefits from economic integration will in fact derive from the construction of a single regional economy.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Prime Minister of Barbados, the Rt. Honourable Owen Arthur speaking today 28 June, to the Symposium, Caribbean Connect, on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in Barbados posited that the obligations under the CSME “were not imposed on us by any colonial master nor any supranational extra-regional institution. They were negotiated in good faith and agreed by the respective countries in their capacity as sovereign States.”

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Haiti’s development will depend largely on the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) institutional support.

This was view of Prime Minister of Dominica, Hon. Roosevelt Skerritt, who briefed the media on Monday 26 June at the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana during a visit to the Secretariat’s headquarters.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Caribbean Community Governments, the Labour Movement and some three hundred private sector organizations are expected to be represented at Caribbean Connect; a High-Level Symposium on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) 28-30 June 2006 at the Sherbourne Conference Centre, Barbados.