There are several views of the possible impacts of that normalisation process. There are those who believe that it’s going to represent the death knell of tourism as we know it in the region.
There are others who see it somewhat differently, they see opportunity where others see threat.
They feel that what it’s going to do is to stimulate the Caribbean tourism market generally, it’s going to widen that Caribbean tourism market, it’s going to give more exposure to the products that we have in this region.
Those who are inclined to that second view, and I must confess that I am sympathetic to that position, feel that it creates the opportunity for multi-island, multi-country tourism.
If you contemplate, for example, what would obtain between two neighbouring countries such as Cuba and Jamaica.
Cuba has a very strong what is called Afro-Latin culture, Jamaica has a very strong what one might call Afro-Saxon culture.
Could you imagine a tourist flying all the way from Europe, arriving in Cuba, starting out his vacation in that environment and enjoying all the wonderful cultural offerings of the Cuban people and then coming across to Jamaica and enjoying what that country has to offer, and which is well known and well branded internationally<
I think it makes for a tremendous opportunity and I think that’s where we should be focussing. But aside from the tourist industry, one of the things that Cuba brings to our region is the fact of its 12 million plus population.
They have what the rest of us don’t have, they have critical mass. That country has, even whilst they have been isolated, been working, skilling their population and they have been developing industries which we don’t have in the English-speaking Caribbean, and there is an excellent opportunity for trade and commerce between the countries of the English-speaking Caribbean, those who are members of our institution, and that country.
I would go further to say that I would expect that Cuba is going to want to become more and more part of the family of Caribbean nations, they have always said that.
Many Caribbean countries have always maintained very close relations with Cuba, even during their period of isolation, so the base is laid for a deepending of that relationship to the benefit of the rest of the Caribbean. That’s my judgment.
Some years ago, Cuba had actually expressed an interest in joining the CDB and we had discussions in the margins of one of our annual meetings with them about this prospect.
In the then context, it was would not have been practical because of the relationship that existed between the United States and Cuba and the complications that would have portended for CDB as we operate in the American capital markets.
Cuba, I think, would be an excellent addition to our institution.
Their development experience has been somewhat different from the rest of the Caribbean, but Cuba has had some successes in economic construction and certainly on the social side, Cuba has very impressive achievements.
We in the rest of the Caribbean have a lot to learn from the Cubans in that regard.