Arthur
Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada:
IT WILL take some US$72 million over the next 10 years to implement the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), Prime Minister Owen Arthur of Barbados told Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders yesterday in Grenada.
Mr. Arthur, pointing to a thick document outlining a programme for the CSME's implementation at the 25th regular meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government, said, "We (CARICOM) have identified that it is going to take US$72 million over 10 years to carry out the process of implementing this work programme as identified in the
document."
He reported that just before the summit began, there was a meeting in Barbados with members of international donors to see how they could attract financial assistance for the CSME implementation
programme.
FINANCING PLAN
"We presented this work programme to them and we also discussed with them the consultants' report on sources of financing," Mr Arthur said. "We are now in the process of responding to their reactions to the two documents, to fine-tune the work programme and to be better able to determine what aspects of this financing plan could be met from our resources and what we can reasonably expect from the international community."
He said implementation of the CSME was now a work in progress. "At this stage the immediate priority is to fully implement the agreed regional programme for the removal of all restrictions that have hitherto existed that prohibited the free of movement of capital, services, and movement of skills by 2005," he said.
So far, the region was on target towards the formation of a single market, he said, noting that a recommendation that had come from the Heads of Government was that there should be no relaxation or deviation from the deadline for the obligations to be met by 2005.
He explained that although some countries like Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago had committed to doing that by 2004, several others, like Belize, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines were also well ahead of the 2005 deadline.
"The challenge now in creating a single economy," Prime Minister Arthur said, "was the requirement to harmonise hundreds of differing fiscal and monetary policies throughout the region." A lot of work would also have to be done in developing regional institutions and the various sectors, he added.
