The CARICOM single market was launched in January of 2006.
It’s debatable whether any serious progress has been made in the three years since, but regardless, planners and policy makers continue to march forward to the implementation of the single market economy by 2015.
The CSME has been referred to as the CARICOM’s flagship project but as attractive as that may sound it will be difficult to achieve simply because of the inherent complexities of a Caribbean single market economy.
But difficult doesn’t mean impossible, and steps are already being taken to assist CARICOM countries like Belize to deal with any problems that may arise.
This week representatives of the CARICOM development fund have been meeting with stakeholders from the private and public sectors to identify and address areas of weakness.
The CARICOM development fund provides grants and concessionary loans. CDF’s chief executive officer Lorne McDonough told us about some of the constraints countries like Belize may encounter
Ambassador Lorne T. McDonnough, Chief Executive Officer of the CDF
"Certainly we were established to mitigate any fallout from the establishment of the CSME which can happen when you open markets, you have to compete within the CSME and also countries within countries. Every country has disparities. For the case of Belize then Belizean businesses would have to bear the brunt of competition from the other countries in CARICOM. And certianly maybe some might not be able to compete effectively, maybe, because the technology might be outdated. So these are issues that we would be willing to assist private sector and government.
Jacqueline Godwin
"Overall, how does Belize stand to benefit from all of this?"
Ambassador Lorne T. McDonnough, Chief Executive Officer of the CDF
"Well, you'll benefit by certainly getting grants which can be used for the public and private sectors and assist them in becoming more compettieive, and also loans which will be avialalble to the private sector and public sector."
"It is expected to be announced by the end of July that the board will be able to announce that we are open for business. And as long as you, the countries have paid up, then they can submit request for assistance."