Mottley to focus on CSME
Incoming Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Mia Amor Mottley’s main focus in 2025 is to get the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) back on track.
She made that clear in a New Year’s message to the region yesterday.
The CSME’s programmes were curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Caribbean in 2020.
“Central to our mission must be resuming the full implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). We paused our coordinated actions on this noble but critical mission as we applied all that we could muster to fight COVID-19 and its trail of economic and social upheaval. But five years on, we must resume our work on the CSME.
“For this is not merely an economic agenda. It is a vision of unity and opportunity for small states who know that we can achieve so much more together than we do individually. Full realisation of the CSME, including above all else, yes, the free movement of our nationals is essential for unlocking the true potential of our people and our economies,” Mottley said in her message.
She said it was a necessity for CARICOM to attain and go beyond the target it set for food and nutritional security, best exemplified by the “Vision 25 by 2025” agenda in 2021.
“We must now focus to apply the few, but necessary recommendations of the distinguished CARICOM Commission on Economy, who reported to us in the middle of the pandemic, when we were justifiably distracted. The pooling of our sovereignty must also be better addressed by the pooling of our efforts, from investment to skills to procurement. We can do better together.
“We must also confront the injustices of the global financial system, which continue to marginalise Small Island and Low-lying Developing States. Unjust blacklisting practices
and insufficient access to concessional financing hinder our sustainable development efforts,” Mottley added.
She said CARICOM would persist in advocating for reforms championed in the Bridgetown Initiative and working with others, like the 73 vulnerable countries in the Climate Vulnerable Forum.
“We also urge the adoption and the laser-like refining of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) to secure critical resources for our region’s future as we face these crises that are often beyond our control to avoid, but for which we must strengthen our resilience to survive,” the new chairman said.
Mottley said CARICOM was looking forward to the meeting in St Kitts and Nevis this year, which would add to the meetings in Trinidad and Guyana on the most critical of issues that affect each and every person in the region She made it clear that unity was a must for Caribbean people.
“In our unity lies our strength. This must be our truth and our rallying cry. Whether tackling the climate crisis, addressing gun violence, or championing equitable global financial reforms, we must act with one voice and one purpose. To our Caribbean people, let us put aside what divides us and focus on what binds us together. I call on us to stay engaged. I say hold us, yes, as leaders accountable. But remember, building this region we love is not only about the governments and its work. It is the responsibility of each and every one of us as Caribbean people, as Caribbean institutions. So, let us contribute our energy and our talents to this cause that matters most to us,” she said.
(BA)
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