CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque to visit SVG

Secretary General of CARICOM (Caribbean Community) Irwin LaRocque, was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves yesterday Thursday, ahead of the CARICOM Heads of Government in Suriname next month.{{more}}

The men were scheduled to meet here in St. Vincent, following a letter sent to LaRocque, in which the Prime Minister identified some issues which he indicated at Tuesday’s press conference concerned the functions of the Heads of Governments in the region and other matters.

“That letter will inform a lot of discussions; it would come up in a lot of discussions on a wide range of issues because it touches on many, many questions.”

“We need that kind of strategic discussions…. Not just one or two management changes here and there; as important as those may be in respect of lifting efficiency, we need to have a lot of new thinking on the strategic directions.”

Dr. Gonsalves said that some of his main issues concerned the Organization of East Caribbean States (OECS), and that he is hopeful that there will be some change on the regional front due to the issues brought to the fore by his correspondence.

“We have to always struggle to get things done, what you want to get done. If you just don’t do anything the world passes you by. You have to keep working, make representations, putting forward ideas on the table…. So we got to get on with it and try and do something; just don’t stand by and just be a bystander. You can’t do that.

“And I feel that I have an especial responsibility… I’ve written extensively on this subject of integration as an academic from the time I’m 25; now I’m 65.”

And I would think that without being immodest that I would have something to say on the subject because I understand the subject and I have lived experiences….”