CARICOM Secretary-General highlights community’s achievements on 50th Anniversary

Published by BBNTEAM at July 3, 2023

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Posted: Monday, July 3, 2023. 10:38 am CST.

By Zoila Palma Gonzalez: On July 4, 1973, 4 countries of the Caribbean signed The Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the Caribbean Community and Common Market CARICOM.

Today, CARICOM has 15 member states and 5 Associate Members, and many successes to celebrate.

As CARICOM celebrates its 50^th Anniversary, Secretary General, Dr. Carla Barnett highlighted the community’s achievements including CARICOM’s model for similar integration movements.

“The four pillars of CARICOM – Economic Integration, Human and Social Development, Foreign Policy Coordination and Security Cooperation – provide a broad scope to develop an integration movement that is the longest-lasting of its kind in the developing world. This is a reality that has resulted in our friends from Africa and the Pacific sending missions to study what we have been doing. CARICOM has been a model for similar integration movements,” Barnett said.

In addition, Barnett shared that during the last 50 years, CARICOM has functioned as a collaborative mechanism which has established several specialised Regional Institutions, including in the areas of Education, Health, Agriculture, Disaster Management, Climate Change, and Crime and Security, which all work to enhance the benefits of our integration.

“We need to remind ourselves from time to time that, as a Region, we were successful in establishing the Caribbean Development Bank, the Caribbean Court of Justice, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, the Caribbean Examination Council, the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS, and the Caribbean Public Health Agency, among others,” Barnett added.

Barnett says that the objective of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) is to progressively and ultimately create a single, seamless economic space within the Community that provides a larger-scale economic, trading and business environment.

“It is our platform for economic growth and development within our Region, as well as our foundation for international competitiveness and effective insertion in the global economy,’ Barnett remarked.

The Secretary General underscored that the regional and global environments have changed considerably since the signing of the original Treaty of Chaguaramas in 1973, and even since the Revised Treaty of 2001.

“However, the fundamental objectives and principles of regional integration remain more valid than ever. It is these objectives and principles that underpin efforts of our Community as we rise to the challenges of this new era. Our young people must now channel their greater facility with the technology, their creativity, and innovative skills to create value that will benefit our Region.

The stories of regional success must be continuously shared across our Community to serve as a constant reminder of what we can achieve with unity of purpose,” the Secretary General reminded.

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