THE TROUBLESOME ISSUE of regional air transportation seems certain to be a major discussion point at the Inter-Sessional Meeting of the conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, which wraps up in St Vincent today.
New chairman of the regional grouping, host Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, said yesterday during the opening session they would look at “improving markedly the delivery of air and sea transport”.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago, the outgoing chairman, noted that “air transport shall remain a top priority and strategic interventions continue to make the operations of Caribbean Airlines/Air Jamaica profitable and sustainable”.
LIAT, which services primarily the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, has been going through severe financial turbulence with a threat being made to cut routes; while Caribbean Airlines has also grappled with difficult economic circumstances and scheduling issues over a number of months.
Most leaders from the 15-member grouping, along with their foreign ministers and technocrats, are attending the meeting being held at Buccament Bay.
Persad-Bissessar said economic challenges that many CARICOM nations faced would be a top agenda discussion point since urgent solutions were needed to get the region back on a path of growth and development.
She said this could only be achieved through the free movement of people and goods, and so reliable transportation across the region had also become a top priority.
Persad-Bissessar also dealt with the issue of crime. Trinidad and Tobago has proposed an amendment to the meeting’s agenda for the ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and support for its bid to host the secretariat in Port of Spain.
“The Arms Trade Treaty provides us with a significant component in the global fight against the trade of conventional arms in illicit markets . . . . I want to urge CARICOM member states to prepare to participate, once more with a unified approach, in the negotiations that will ensue before and after the ATT comes into force,” she said.
(ES)
