BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – A prominent University of the West Indies (UWI) academic today said he was “deeply disappointed” at the outcome of the two-day retreat of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders in Guyana over the weekend.
“I am not seeing any concrete or meaningful decisions to address the deep seated problems of governance and implementation that presently afflict the community and which are at the root of the so-call information deficit,” UWI Professor Emeritus, Norman Girvan told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
“I am just seeing another statement of good intention and if I might say so platitudes that the people of the region have quite frankly become tired and cynical about,” said Girvan, a former professorial research fellow at the UWI Graduate Institute of International Relations.
A statement issued at the end of the retreat, which was attended by ten of the 15 CARICOM leaders, indicated that the process towards a single economy within the 15-member grouping that would have gone into effect by 2015, will now “take longer than anticipated”.
In addition, the leaders also “recognised that while the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) provided a platform for attaining further economic development of the Community, its ultimate goal was to provide a better quality of life and greater prosperity for the Peoples of the Community”.
In their statement, the regional leaders noted that with respect to governance, “they reaffirmed the decision taken at their Inter-Sessional Meeting in Grenada in February to await the completion of the current review of the CARICOM Secretariat, before taking any firm decisions towards the establishment of the Permanent Committee of CARICOM Ambassadors (PCCA).
Girvan, a former secretary general of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) said he was “deeply disappointed by what I have seen in the communiqué” adding there has been no substantial movement on the single economy and single market for several years.
“ . . . but I don’t think that is the main issue. The main issue is how can we change the governance of the community so that decisions that are taken have some legal force and also have a machinery of implementation and that issue simply has been dodged.”
Girvan told CMC that regional population “should have been getting a very specific decision to move forward in terms of setting up a system of decision making in the community that give decisions the force of law at least in certain, specific areas”. (CMC)
