A fixed, single CARICOM roaming rate is soon to be implemented according to CARICOM Chair and Barbadian Prime Minister, Mia Mottley.
She was speaking at yesterday’s 31st intersessional meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in Barbados, according to a release from the CARICOM Secretariat.
Speaking on the digital economy, the release said that the Chair stressed the Community’s belief in this sector’s “powerful role in the development of our economies”. She cited ongoing work to provide “a modest fixed single CARICOM roaming rate for all CARICOM nationals”, which she said will be announced shortly.
“Our teams have been working with operators in the telecommunications sector across the Region and indeed, Prime Minister (Keith) Mitchell (of Grenada), who is the lead prime minister in this area, has, along with the (CARICOM Single Market and Economy) team, worked with the operators to shortly announce a modest fixed single CARICOM roaming rate for all CARICOM nationals to cover the cost of data for popular social media platforms including, those that offer messaging and calls”, she said
“The rate will include an amount of local and regional voice calls, and over time this CARICOM rate will include more services. This is what it means to be family taking decisions”, she asserted.
On the issue of community governance, Mottley noted that “some self-examination” was in order. She referenced the under-resourced CARICOM Secretariat which she said was now functioning with 30 million Eastern Caribbean dollars less than it did 10 years ago and with 40 people less than it did 30 years ago, despite increasing challenges and new mandates.
She suggested a review of the 2003 Rose Hall Declaration and the entire issue of community governance with a view to finding a “modality that would allow for more effective implementation of Heads decisions, particularly those related to the CARICOM Single Market and Single Economy”, the release added.
The Chair used the current threat to the Region posed by COVID-19 (coronavirus) to demonstrate the benefits of family and taking decisions to confront challenges. She singled out regional institutions: CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) (and its sub-agency Joint Regional Communication Centre (JRCC) and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) that are working along with other agencies to keep the emergency away from the Region.
Mottley who also dealt with issues such as regional air transport and the financing for the Caribbean Development Fund, among others, urged her fellow colleagues to “perfect a finer vision for “ourselves [the Community] and act to create that vision”.
