Caribbean Tourism Summit to Follow Nassau Heads of Government Conference

by Earl Bousquet

Nassau, The Bahamas - July 6, 2001: -- CARICOM Heads of Government opened their 22^nd Summit in Nassau, The Bahamas capital, on Tuesday evening with calls for crucial decisions to be made on several outstanding issues and agreeing to later this year host a Caribbean Tourism Summit proposed by St. Lucia’s Prime Minister, Dr Kenny D. Anthony.

            All member-states were represented at the level of Heads of Government at the opening ceremony in the Bahamian capital, where CARICOM leaders are expected to deliberate on important issues such as the proposed CARICOM Single Market & Economy (CSME), HIV/Aids, challenges to the regional economy and drug trafficking.

Tourism featured during the opening ceremony at the National Centre for Performing Arts, with several speakers underlining the increasingly greater importance of the sector to the Caribbean’s economic survival.

The Bahamas Prime Minister, who is host and new Chairman of CARICOM, called for “continued competitiveness in tourism” and urged his counterparts at the meeting to “put tourism at its rightful place in the development of the Caribbean.”

In this regard, Mr. Ingraham revealed that a Caribbean Tourism Summit proposed by St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony will be held to seriously consider issues related to the sector, which is of increasing importance for the economic survival of CARICOM member-states.

The meeting was originally scheduled to take place in the Bahamas immediately after the conclusion of the present summit.

However, Mr. Ingraham said it had to be postponed until October, when the region’ leaders, accompanied by tourism and hotel officials from member-states, will gather at Freeport on Grand Bahamas Island for the summit.

When they meet in three months time, the leaders will discuss and agree on plans and proposals to take the region’s tourism product development to a higher stage, in the interest of all territories concerned.

Prime Minister Ingraham made a plea for hastening the process of fully integrating neighbouring Haiti into CARICOM and for quickening the pace towards creation of a single market and economy.

            Mr. Ingraham said his country was well aware of the nature of the crisis in Haiti that resulted in hundred of “boat people” illegally migrating to or through the Bahamas island chain in search of greener pastures.

            But, he said, crucial to the success of CARICOM’s efforts to integrate Haiti “is the commitment of all parties in the political process in Haiti to work cooperatively to move Haiti beyond its paralysing political impasse.”

            Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur echoed similar sentiments, noting in his presentation that CARICOM continued to be engaged in the political process in the troubled island republic.

            He said CARICOM recently established an office in Haiti (located at the Bahamas diplomatic mission in Port au Prince) to help coordinate the regional efforts and to facilitate the continuing involvement of CARICOM and its member-states in the political process.

            Prime Minister Ingraham reiterated his country’s concerns about participation in freedom of movement of CARICOM citizens on the basis of its own historical problems with illegal migration.

However, he also supported calls by his colleagues for “removal of institutional and infrastructural barriers within CARICOM to allow for the freer flow of capital, goods, services and skills across a Single Market Economy, and to improve the region’s international competitiveness.”

            He also said “a CSME without a Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is not a realistic proposition.” He explained that the creation and success of a CSME requires that a CCJ be enabled to effectively exercise jurisdiction over matters arising from the CSME, bringing certainty to the interpretation and application of the revised treaty and otherwise serve the interests of CARICOM states.”

However, that position, which is supported by most CARICOM leaders, did not find favour with the new Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves.

Speaking after Mr. Ingraham at the opening ceremony, Dr Gonsalves repeated his opposition to the establishment of the proposed CCJ, insisting that it would not be quite in order “to build a judicial superstructure entitled the CCJ, which envisages the abolition of the Privy Council a the final appellate authority, but leaves the base, the Magisterial Courts system, in shambles.”

In his address, the Bahamas Prime Minister also addressed the matter of offshore financial services and the threats by the OECD countries to publish a blacklist of offending jurisdictions in the Caribbean,

He said he was satisfied that the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands had been removed from the list of offending jurisdictions (non-cooperating countries and territories) drawn up by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of the OECD countries.

But Mr. Ingraham was also of the view that the FATF and the OECD were “neither fair nor uniformly applied to all international financial service jurisdictions, including some that hold membership of the FATF, the OECD or the FSF.”

The matter of freedom of movement of Caribbean people within the region was also addressed by the speakers at the opening ceremony.

The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister said it was important for “freedom of movement to be made hassle-free.’

Echoing a position publicly adumbrated by Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Mr. Lester Bird, Dr Gonsalves said if the process was not done properly, “people will continue to see freedom of movement for skilled persons as being only for the elites.”

He called for “a removal of the use of passports and work permits” across the CARICOM region to better facilitate a greater level of freedom of movement of people.

According to Dr Gonsalves, it was also a continuing matter of concern for many Caribbean people that “we welcome American tourists with open arms, while they turn us back at their gates.”

The Vincentian Prime Minister, the most recent to be elected, repeated his call made in St. Lucia last month for “a political confederation of states” between the OECS and Barbados.

Having earlier called for “any two states that are ready” to join his multi-island state in the formation of the proposed but elusive political union of the OECS, Dr Gonsalves said he was encouraged by a recent decision by Barbados to allow St. Vincent to engage in financial activities that will raise foreign exchange on the Barbados market.

The various political crises faced by CARICOM member states and addressed by the wider regional grouping over the past six months also came in for attention at the opening ceremony.

The Barbados Prime Minister, in handing over the chairmanship to his Bahamian host and counterpart, reported there had been progress towards the establishment of the CCJ and that the CSME was a few more steps closer o fruition.

He also said there had been progress in the fight against HIV-AIDS in the region, which has the second highest rate of infection in the world after Africa.

According to Prime Minister Arthur, there had also been some progress in CARICOM’s efforts “to ensure the integrity of the democratic processes in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and in Guyana.”

In St. Vincent, the general elections three months ago were smooth, resulting in a change of government.

In the case of Guyana, Prime Minister Arthur said, CARICOM acknowledged “a process of national political reconciliation” was taking place as a result of talks between President Bharrat Jagdeo and Opposition Leader Desmond Hoyte.

He urged his colleagues to continue to facilitate and monitor developments in the grouping’s largest member-states, saying: “CARICOM needs a strong Guyana.”

The Barbados Prime Minister also reported CARICOM had embarked on “an outreach to Suriname”, where a new government was also elected since the last summit. He said meetings had been held and urged that these contacts be built upon.

For his part, Surinamese President Ronald Venetiaan acknowledged CARICOM’s efforts to integrate his South American country into the regional movement and called for more to be done “to enhance an understanding of what CARICOM is about in Suriname” and vice versa, for the region to learn and know much more about Suriname itself.

It’s the third time Caribbean Heads of Government have assembled in The Bahamas for such a meeting, with previous summits having taken place in Nassau in 1984 and 1993.

Attending the Summit as observers are two other heads of government from outside CARICOM: the Premier of Bermuda and the President of the Dominican Republic.

Also present in Nassau is the Commonwealth Secretary General, the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), the new President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), the Head of the Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) and top representatives of the Organisation of East Caribbean States (OECS), the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) and the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC).

The meeting ends on July 6 and Prime Minister Ingraham has extended an invitation to the Heads of Government to remain for celebration of the island’s independence celebrations, which begin immediately following the summit.

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