Port-of-Spain mayor backs regional integration

Jamaica and Trinidad must take lead

ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN peoples share more than cricket and an ideal geographic space, says Mayor of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Joel Martinez, who has urged that the shared history be used to push for full regional integration through the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).

“We talk about it (integration), but we haven’t done enough about it. I think that we have to start doing it in good faith first. We have to start integrating our societies through the CSME. We are doing it in so many ways already in our culture and social lives – so let’s continue developing it,” Martinez told the Caribbean Conference of Mayors held at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Regional Headquarters in St Andrew yesterday.

The CSME is an initiative of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that seeks to integrate all of its member-states into a single economic unit. It is also intended to benefit the people of the region by providing more and better opportunities to produce and sell goods and services and to attract investment across borders.

Martinez said that full integration could take place but noted that countries with the more powerful economies such as Jamaica and Trinidad must take the lead to initiate serious dialogue around the CSME.

“We are the leaders of the Caribbean, and as leaders, we really must start developing it, and those other smaller islands will certainly want to join us. It’s taking too long. We tend to talk a lot too much without doing the things we ought to be doing as Caribbean peoples. So we must start aggressively, attentively to pursue it,” Martinez appealed to colleagues on the final of the threeday conference.

It was geared at building relationships among mayors and local government practitioners from across the Caribbean to deepen the understanding of the systems and structures within various Caribbean territories and to provide the platform to grow and improve cities and townships.