The Public and Private Sectors: An Effective Partnership for Implementing the CARICOM Single Market and Economy

• Author: H.E. Edwin Carrington
• Pages: 83-90

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The Public and Private Sectors

It is indeed a pleasure for me today, to be once again interacting with the

leaders of the Region’s Private Sector. The invitation by the Caribbean

Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) is appreciated even though as

we speak, the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) is

meeting in Georgetown as the Region tries to forge ahead with its integration

agenda and programme, recognising that time is of the essence. My presence

here to say a few words today is also evidence of my recognition of the fact

that effective participation of the Private Sector in the decision-making and

implementation arrangements of the Community will serve to strengthen

and deepen the integration process, particularly the CARICOM Single Market

and Economy.

In today’s world, small countries would appear to have two basic strategic

choices. One is to go it alone. However, even if a microstate were to

successfully craft such a global strategy, its capacity to execute it would

remain highly questionable. The second choice is to cooperate with others

combining their resources, negotiating common interests and jointly managing

their economic space and economic relations with their competitors, under

the umbrella of regional integration/co-operation. CARICOM is a

representation of this alternative strategy.

In 1989 at Grand Anse, Grenada, CARICOM set out the basic tenets of

its current global strategy. That strategy has evolved over the past decade as

the 21st Century approached and will inter alia serve to link our regional

economy into the global economy and its trading systems.

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8Speech by H.E. Edwin Carrington,

Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community

(CARICOM) May 2003

THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS:

AN EFFECTIVE PARTNERSHIP FOR

IMPLEMENTING THE CARICOM

SINGLE MARKET AND ECONOMY

(CSME)