Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington says that Caricom shares with the Rio Group deep concerns over rising crime in the region and the need for security cooperation.
In a statement to the Rio Group summit here last week, Carrington said “In this regard, Caricom has moved to put in place a new architecture for combating crime and addressing security matters”.
So important the issue was to the region, Carrington noted that Caricom had inscribed security cooperation as the fourth pillar in the integration process.
And Caricom is now tasked with coming up with exactly who will represent it at the level of the Rio Group, now that Guyana has made known its intention to seek full membership of the group. Guyana represents Caricom in the Rio Group.
Carrington says the other members of the regional grouping will have to now look toward whether they would all be in the group, “we don’t know”.
Delivering his address at the Opening of the 19th Meeting of the Rio Group last Friday, President Bharrat Jagdeo said that after Guyana relinquishes its responsibilities as a member of the Troika at the end of the Dominican Republic’s term of office, “we intend to seek full membership of the Group in our own right to enable us to continue our contributions to the process of integration and regional development.”
Jagdeo said he hoped Guyana’s request will be favourably considered.
Guyana is in a unique position, being both a member state of Caricom and the only English-speaking nation in South America.
Additionally because of its geographical location, Guyana also facilitates that link between the Caribbean and Latin America. It has also performed the role of a bridge between South America and Caricom, as in much the same way as Belize, also a member of Caricom and of the Rio Group, has done between Caricom and Central America.
It is the type of bridge that provides essential bonds among developing countries, thereby increasing their effectiveness which as recently as last month led to a meeting in Belize between ministers of both sub-regions on the world’s stage and enabling them to make a significant political impact on hemispheric relations.
Carrington sees Guyana’s hosting of the high-level summit as a “shot in the arm” for relations between the Caribbean and Latin America and hopes that the next Caribbean host, the Dominican Republic, would build on this.
He said Caricom and Central America had convened discussions in many areas and he too is looking forward to closer collaboration between the two groups.
In his address to the summit, Carrington said he was proud of the honour that the Rio Group bestowed on Guyana – a member of Caricom and noted that he felt a sense of joy because of the efficient and effective manner in which Guyana carried out its responsibility to the Rio Group.
“This summit highlights the importance of human and social issues in the process of development of the Rio Group.
In this regard, the emphasis on poverty reduction, on social protection and cohesion, on migration and on the social targets in health, HIV/AIDS, education, and the environment, all identified with the Millennium Development Goals, form part of an essential package of policy priorities.
This package goes to the heart of the inequali ty in our societies and is indispensable to improving the quality of life of the people in the Rio Group,” he told delegates of the meeting.
Moreover, the Caricom Secretary General noted that it was no coincidence that the same issues at the summit resonated in the concerns of and recommendations from the recently concluded 18th Inter-Sessional Meeting of Caricom Heads of Government, which was held two weeks ago in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
To this end, he alluded too to the full recognition from Caricom leaders that to achieve the major community objective of establishing the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) social issues must be elevated to complement the trade and other economic issues.
It is in this vein too that Carrington singled out the steps taken by the heads which include the establishment of a commission on youth to recommend policies and programmes to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities that youth in the region currently experience and to empower them to participate more meaningfully in the integration process.
The establishment of a Caribbean Commission for health and development and adoption of its report which has recommended, among other things, that greater emphasis must be placed on the non-communicable diseases, was another step taken by heads, Carrington added.
He said hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and other lifestyle diseases notwithstanding HIV and AIDS are still among the highest causes of death in regional communities and much thought is being given to health reform and to the establishment of a regional health insurance scheme.
He said he hopes that the summit was the beginning of a new era and will no doubt be part of Guyana’s legacy to both the Caribbean community and the Rio Group.
“And now we look with equal confidence toward the Dominican Republic to add its own unique contribution to the building of this invaluable regional hemispheric edifice,” Carrington concluded.
Guyana has represented Caricom at the Rio Group for the past nine years and the two sub regions have over the years been confronted with the same challenges.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning was also here in Guyana for the summit at the invitation of President Jagdeo and so participated at the level of informal discussions.
