Priorities of the Private Sector in the CSME

• Author: Dr. Edward Greene
• Pages: 115-126

115

Priorities of the Private Sector in the CSME

Salutation

It is my pleasure to bring you greetings from the Secretary General H.E

Edwin Carrington and staff of the CARICOM Secretariat, as the honour has

been bestowed on me to address this distinguished gathering of Business

representatives at your first quarterly meeting for 2006, on the priorities for

the CSME. I congratulate the Jamaica Employers Federation for taking the

initiate to be part of the public awareness campaign and for allowing the

CARICOM Secretariat through this forum, to discuss with you the issues of

concern to the business community as the region advances toward the

deepening of its integration process. It cannot be over-emphasised that the

CSME is an essential feature of this Region’s survival in the global economy.

Your breakfast meeting occurs at a time when the euphoria occasioned by

the launching of the CARICOM Single Market at the Mona Campus last

night still prevails.

Context

Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have long

since recognized that a successful future lies in the deepening of regional

trade and economic integration and cooperation in other functional areas,

such as foreign policy and human and social development. The CARICOM

Single Market and Economy (CSME) is the Region’s current integration effort

and is intended to facilitate the economic survival of the region in a globalised

environment. At the same time, the CSME is intended to create an economic

environment, which is conducive to the competitive production of goods and

services for intra-regional as well as extra-regional trade and to give the

citizens of the Caribbean a better chance of surviving in the global arena.

11

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0Dr. Edward Greene,

Asst. Secretary-General

Caribbean Community Secretariat

31 January 2006, Jamaica

PRIORITIES OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR

IN THE CSME