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Caribbean governments must provide incentives for Pan-Caribbean companies – Jagdeo
Regional integration demands regional companies – B/dos PM
Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson said the Caribbean should be seeing increased production and exports, given the potential in tourism, energy and manufacturing for countries like Guyana; but the region just can’t seem to get it right.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds is seen shaking hands with Opposition Leader Robert Corbin at the GMSA Dinner on Friday evening. Looking on are Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson and President Bharrat Jagdeo.
He has advocated for member countries of the regional integration bloc, CARICOM, to provide an incentive regime for the formation of regional companies.
Thompson, who has lead responsibility within CARICOM for implementation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, said what is needed is a deepening of the integration process, centred on the creation of Pan-Caribbean companies and the establishment of a regional capital market providing new sources of funding.
The Barbadian Prime Minister was at the time speaking at the Annual Awards ceremony of the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association, held on Friday evening at Thirst Park in Georgetown.
He said that governments in the region have to find ways of assisting investors to find financing for their ideas, but he said there is need to mitigate the increasing cost of borrowing from international financial institutions.
Thompson said there is need to identify local and intra-regional sources for financing. He posited that the Caribbean Development Fund is one means by which growth can be accelerated in key sectors, and manufacturing should be one of the priority areas.
While President Jagdeo, speaking at the same ceremony, agreed largely with the position of his Barbadian counterpart, he still held strongly to his view that the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which the Caribbean has signed with the European Union “is bad”.
In his presentation, Thompson hailed the EPA, saying it was founded on deepening regional integration. He noted that the establishment of a Regional Development Fund is part of the agreement, and contains components for business development and investment promotion.
President Jagdeo said that the region could have secured a better deal with Europe had there been more cooperation, but he said at least he is satisfied that the agreement will be reviewed every five years.
Touching on the global financial crisis, the President said he hopes the Caribbean can cooperate this time, since the way Western governments are handling problems, by bailing out financial institutions while providing a short-term solution, can become disastrous in the future, resulting in as much as five times the current crisis.
He said it is going to be a difficult time for the region, and the way to overcome the challenge is to act collectively. He specified that the region must band together in approaching multilateral financial institutions to guarantee a contingent line of credit with “simple triggers,” so that funds can be released as needed so that countries in the region can meet their development needs.
President Jagdeo called for countries in the region to get their central banks to invest their vast reserves locally, instead of investing it overseas. He said that 90 percent of the reserves of the region’s central banks are performing development tasks elsewhere.
Also needed to spur growth, President Jagdeo said, is the need for a new business culture on the part of the private sector.
He posited that often business leaders are too contented, and he urged them to be “hungry.”
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