OECS set to sign on
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines will sign onto the Single Market on June 30, according to Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit.
Speaking to the issue of the Single Market during a press briefing in Georgetown, Guyana on Monday, June 26, Prime Minister Skerrit said that the
six CARICOM Member States were now satisfied that the regional Development Fund will become operational.{{more}}
“We are very optimistic about the CSME,” Prime Minister Skerrit said, while noting the operation of the Fund, for which a contribution formula had been finalized earlier; This fund is of particular concern to the Less Developed Countries of the Region.
In expressing his country’s gratitude for CARICOM’s support of Dominica’s programme of stabilization and recovery, Prime Minister Skerrit said Dominica had recorded a 3.5 percent growth rate over the last two years. He highlighted the significance of the Single Market and the importance of Free Movement to the development of industries as “absolutely important and necessary”, and stated, “we have to facilitate each other”.
He pointed out that given the pressures now brought to bear on the Region by the international community, integration was more than ever necessary. In the context of human resource demands across the Region under the dispensation of the Single Market, he said, “it is important that each of us embrace the CSME”.
The Prime Minister of Dominica is the lead Head of Government with responsibility for Labour including Free Movement of Skills, in the CARICOM Heads of Government Quasi cabinet.
Prime Minister Skerrit said that the Region should serve as “watchdogs” of the international community in ensuring they keep their promises of assisting Haiti in its rebuilding and recovery process.
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