Youth to carry CSME torch
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Contact: Claudia Monlouis
Monday, October 12, 2009 – Young people from Saint Lucia and the rest of the region have been called upon to promote, through their own unique approaches, the implementation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) among their peers.
This encouragement has come from Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Consumer Affairs Mr. Titus Preville, as he recently bid farewell to a group of youth from Saint Kitts who visited Saint Lucia to undertake a field promotion and investigation of the implementation of the CSME in Saint Lucia.
Mr. Preville thinks young people are better able to reach their own in disseminating vital information on the integration process.
“From the outset, let me express my heartfelt gratitude to the many firms in Saint Lucia and businesses that took time off to engage the students, to speak with them about the practical aspects of the operations of the CSME. I am sure, from what I have been told, that they outlined the constraints and challenges they have faced by trying to engage as business persons in the CSME,” he said.
Acquiring such first-hand knowledge of the practical workings of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, Mr. Preville said, equips the students with a broader understanding of the concept which they must now share with the general public.
“The CSME will work to the extent that we are prepared to allow it to work. It will work to the extent that we are honest with each other and accept that we have not always done what we know we should have, to make it easier for each other. At the end of the day, it will take students like you, young people like you, to prove to the older generation that the CSME is in fact worth it,” said the Ministry of Commerce official.
The students are charged with the mandate of compiling a report comprising observations and recommendations—to present to the CARICOM Heads for inclusion in documents—that speak to the way forward for the CSME integration process. |
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