There can now be no mistaking the fact that in the period ahead, Guyana will play a pivotal role as a kind of compass to the region in terms of the push towards genuine integration in the economic sphere. The prospects associated with the strengthening of business links between Guyana and Barbados, for example, have been evident for some time now. Indeed, one may even venture to say that there are indications that the two countries get on well together as evidenced in the warmth that is exuded whenever President Ali and Prime Minister Mottley meet each other.
Evidence of Guyana, of late, serving as a magnet that could draw the region closer has been highlighted in the interest being shown by two other CARICOM member countries, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, in strengthening bilateral ties with Guyana at different levels of business and economic corporation. In the instance of Trinidad and Tobago it has been disclosed that the country’s state-run oil company Petrotrin has signalled an interest in working alongside the local oil and gas sector reportedly in a refining capacity though not a great deal has emerged, at least publicly, from such signals as may have been sent to the government here.
In the instance of Jamaica, the pace of progress towards enhanced business ties has been much more accelerated. A visit here in October by a mostly private sector team but headed by a Jamaican Cabinet Minister was the prelude to another largely private sector visit (headed by the same Minister) that will reportedly be examining specific investment prospects that exist in Guyana’s rapidly growing economy for outsiders.
All of this, in the first instance, would appear to point to a likely role for Guyana as a catalyst for the triggering of a new area in business and economic cooperation at the level of CARICOM. If this is indeed what it is, it could hardly have come at a more opportune time. Considerations of climate change and food secure challenges facing much of the region and the portents, going forward, are less than particularly encouraging. Most Caribbean economies are currently undergoing their various types of social and economic pressures that seriously call into questions some of the goals that the region has set itself, not least, those that have to do with enhancing intra-regional food production at the expense of extra-regional imports.
At separate points in the history of CARICOM, specific member countries have been identified as leaders in the thrust for regional integration. What may well have served to hinder those efforts more than anything has been held to be an embedded ‘me first’ mentality that suppresses that genuine reaching out process without which little in the way of all-round regional advancement can be realized. Are we, at this time, being presented with another opportunity to kick-start a genuine integration process and are we ready to grasp that opportunity?