Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gonsalves on Monday urged staff members of the Caribbean Community Secretariat to continue their hard work to promote regional integration and rallied them to “keep the faith.”
“Sometimes it might look as if we are marking time, but we have been making some good progress in some areas
and we have more to do and I want to thank you for soldiering on and working together and I hope in the new year we can redouble our efforts,” he said, according to a report from the Caricom Secretariat.
Gonsalves, who holds the Transport portfolio in the Caricom Quasi Cabinet, assumes the Chairmanship of the Community in January 2014.
He was in Georgetown on a two-fold mission – to visit the Caricom Secretariat and to hold bilateral talks with President Donald Ramotar. During his visit, the prime minister also held discussions with Caricom Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and members of the Secretariat’s Executive Management Committee.
In his brief address to staff members, Gonsalves said his visit to the Secretariat was in preparation for his assumption of the Chair.
He identified a “bundle of issues” that are germane to the integration movement that he would focus on including trade among Caricom member states and with external partners, job creation, transportation, economy, free movement and hassle free travel, governance and climate change mitigation.
