GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC):

Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Dr. Edwin Carrington, envisages a stronger integration movement in 2007, but stressed that this needed to be buttressed by greater sacrifices from the region's people.

Carrington, in a New Year's message, said while 2006 was a year of undoubted progress with far-reaching implications for Caribbean integration, 2007 holds great promise but requires even deeper commitment from people in the region.

"I am confident that the Caribbean Community has erected a solid foundation towards achieving its goals," he said.

"Having as a people taken that giant step to forge a single market and economy, unprecedented among developing countries, it is incumbent on us to discharge our responsibilities with diligence, urgency and sensitivity, to ensure effective implementation."

The single market was inaugurated last year while plans are being finalised for the implementation of the single economy in 2008.

"Let us, therefore, hold fast, be resolute and keep the focus as we build a competitive single economy," he continued.

The single economy will include, among other things, closer monetary and financial cooperation, integration of capital markets, common fiscal and investment policies, changes in corporate structures, harmonised taxation structures as well as exchange and interest rate policies.

Carrington said individual governments, the private sector, the labour movement, and civil society must be involved to make the single economy a reality.