Regional Conference focuses CSME
The CARICOM Single Market and Economy has been an issue on the regional agenda for quite some years now. And while the underlying goal of the C.S.M.E. is to provide all member countries of CARICOM onboard with one market and one common denomination, achieving this goal has run into a number of hurdles. Belize has adopted some requirements including the introduction of the new CARICOM passport, but as a country, we have fallen short in some respects. The CARICOM Secretariat, the Caribbean Broadcast Union and the Caribbean Media Workers joined hands this week to challenge those whose job it is to keep the public aware of these current issues; that is the media. With funding from the European Development Fund, the three parties convened a conference in Saint Lucia with media workers from throughout CARICOM. The focus was to challenge the journalists to engage more in public information about the C.S.M.E. The conference was a clear signal that journalists need to fill the information vacuum with more coverage of trade and economic issues.
Patrick Cozier, Sec. Gen., C.B.U.
“What we’re trying to do is identify some of the gaps that exist to see how we can more effectively speak to those gaps in developing a sustained public education programme.”
Marion Ali
“In regards to the CSME itself, there are some goals in that regard that have not been met and what came out of the discussions is that several governments are not with some aspects of the programmes while others are and the single economy seems to be the biggest problem to arrive at that goal.”
Patrick Cozier
“The single economy of course is the largest challenge so obviously it is going to be one of the greater difficulties. And yes, one of the concerns if that the implementation pace is not consistent in all territories. Some countries may be more advanced in the implementation than others and as a consequence, you have disparities as you move about the region. What we hope to do is to be able to get a sense of the trajectory of progress to be able to see where we are along the way and to be able to report to our publics, the progress that is being made.”
Marion Ali
“But the CSME did come about sir—if I am understanding correctly—the CSME came about because of the needs that our member countries have seen the importance of the CSME so why then would we have governments not in agreement with some of the issues?”
Patrick Cozier
“Well, you know you had from the beginning, for instance, the Bahamas who is part of the community but is not participating in the CSME. They have their own reasons for that. We have the other countries who are participating but I think in the main everybody is moving but the problem is that everybody is not implementing at the same time. So the process of implementation is not entirely consistent and as a consequence, there are some countries where things have moved ahead further than others.”
Wesley Gibbings, Pres., Assn, Caribbean Media Workers
“What is quite apparent is that there are significant information deficits. People need to know more about what the implications of the CSME are. They need to get an understanding of the process and what is involved, what are the sacrifices people have to make and what are the potential opportunities and benefits. Journalists and broadcasters need to take a critical look at what is happening and to produce stories that are accurate and do a significant amount of prying and investigation to ensure that what is being proposed by regional governments will in the end redound to the benefit of citizens.”
Marion Ali
“Many of the goals of the CSME have not been achieved in several of our countries. Do you attribute that to the lax attitude that we, as journalists have been displaying over the years when it comes to CSME?”
Wesley Gibbings
“I wouldn’t put the blame on journalists. I think that what has in fact happened is that there has not been a sufficient amount of pull from the citizens. There hasn’t been the kind of political pressure applied by the citizens on the matter of fulfilling the aspirations of the CSME because of a lack of information. I think it’s not that people have been—journalists can play a role by reporting more accurately and more fully on what is happening with the CSME and I think that in turn, citizens will respond one way or the other because the intention is not to garner support for this thing. It might well be that public opinion will be completely opposed to what is proposed. But that is part of the process; the idea is for people to have the information that they need to make informed choices on the C.S.M.E. and what it offers.”
According to Secretary General of the Caribbean Broadcast Union, Patrick Cozier, despite all the delays, the anticipation is that the single economy will have been implemented by 2015.
