The Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) Secretary-General underscored the role of the private sector in creating growth, employment, and the single market.
He said CARICOM should work to enhance the private sector's global competitiveness through initiatives in trade facilitation, transportation, telecommunications and energy.
1 March 2012: The Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) Secretary-General, Irwin LaRocque, underscored that the private sector must play a crucial role if CARICOM is to realize the potential of its Single Market and Economy (CSME) and achieve the growth and employment goals set by its Heads of Government.
Speaking at a business luncheon hosted by the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) in Georgetown, Guyana, LaRocque highlighted the business opportunity CSME represents for the region’s private sector. He argued that the enlarged market in both manufacturing and services offered by the CSME, which will expand from 6 to 15 million potential consumer once Haiti joins, can help businesses in small countries enhance their competitiveness and even “use the regional platform as a springboard into the global environment.”
He said the private sector role was crucial to realizing the goal of job creation set out by the Heads of Government and suggested CARICOM should be looking strategically at how to create the environment for it to prosper, contribute to regional development and compete better in the global marketplace. He suggested that key areas that CARICOM could address in this regard are trade facilitation, transportation, telecommunications and energy sources. [CARICOM Press Release]