Regional cooperation is our best solution

As the negative effects of all that has been happening at the global level over the past three years begin to bite more and more, the wisdom of the oft-repeated goal of regional economic cooperation is becoming crystal clear, even to the sceptics.

Though Caribbean countries have always preached adherence to this principle, in practice most countries have tried to go their own way, and it is only when this does not work out that we revert to collective efforts to bail ourselves out of increasingly grim situations.

This week however, encouraging signs of possible concrete steps towards practical cooperation in the vital area of energy emerged with the holding of an International Energy Conference in Guyana. Massive discoveries of oil and gas deposits have not only been turning that country’s fortunes in a positive direction, but have been raising false hopes in some quarters that Guyana may now be the elusive El Dorado, sought after for centuries.

In many ways Guyana is well placed to learn the lesson of its once petroleum-rich Caribbean neighbour, Trinidad and Tobago. There, the oil wealth generated all sorts of illusions about that twin-island republic being able to blaze its own path to wealth and glory. The vicissitudes of the global economy coupled with mismanagement and waste appears to have taught our southern neighbours a lesson.

At the Energy Conference, Trinidadian Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley offered his country’s resources and experiences to its neighbours not just in developing and exploring carbon-based energy sources, but moreover in utilizing these in the thrust to exploit and utilize sources of renewable energy. He told the Conference that: “The regional energy landscape does not equip any single country to meet the energy security requirements of the region. A cooperative approach allows for shared risks and diversified perspectives and will facilitate the development and execution of innovative solutions to the challenges associated with the energy demand for the region”.

Offering to engage regional neighbours in this venture, he told Conference participants, among them our own Prime Minister Gonsalves, that while investment in developing renewable energy resources is inevitable, it does not come cheap and that investment costs in this direction are not only challenging but can be prohibitive at times.

It was therefore most heartening to hear of his offer to use his country’s resources and experience to help its neighbours in this regard. Already there are initiatives involving Guyana, Barbados and Grenada as well as a major project with Venezuela which, due to the sanctions placed by the USA on Venezuela would have prohibited export of refined products to the USA and other destinations, and therefore required an agreement with the USA in this regard.

One can only hope that this time regional countries take advantage of the opportunities offered and engage in meaningful cooperation in this vital area. There is much that we can learn from the experiences of T&T, both the positive ones as well as the bitter pills which that country has had to swallow. Success in this endeavour can only help to steel our resolve regionally, to tackle collectively another regional bugbear, air and sea transportation.