CÚPULA DA AMÉRICA LATINA E DO CARIBE SOBRE ... - Funag

INTERVENÇÕES (VERSÃO ORIGINAL)
Thompson who was looking forward to participate in this historic meeting but
who has had to remain in Barbados to deal with an urgent and sensitive matter
of national significance. Barbados commends you Mr. President for your
initiative in bringing together the Heads of State and Government of Latin
America and the Caribbean to share their perspectives on integration and
development.
They do so at a time of great global turmoil and uncertainty where a
profound economic and financial crisis caused by the greed and excesses of
the few is having a disproportionate impact upon the lives of ordinary people,
particularly in the developing world. These circumstances serve all the more
to highlight the extent of our interdependence and to demonstrate the strategic
importance of regional cooperation and coordination in responding to our
common development challenges. The countries of the Caribbean are acutely
aware that their small and vulnerable economies cannot stand the pressure of
economic globalization if we act alone. For us, regional integration is an absolute
imperative.
Our integration project has matured and developed over the past half
century, from the early days of the failed western federation in the 1950s to
the modern Caribbean Community governed by the provisions of the revised
Treaty of Chagaramas. Within our sub-region, we have already put in place
the CARICOM single market, which provides for the free movement of goods,
services, capital, and skilled CARICOM nationals as well as the rights of the
establishment for Caribbean entrepreneurs. Work continues in the second
phase of the process through the Caribbean single economy, which is intended
to further integrate our production and financial sectors, coordinate our
economic sector policies and harmonize our fiscal and monetary policies. The
basic institutions required to support our integration project, the CARICOM
Secretariat, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Caribbean Court of Justice,
and most recently the Caribbean Competition Commission and the Caribbean
Development Fund, are all in place.
Beyond the economic sphere, CARICOM has well-established
mechanisms for functional cooperation in all of the major sectors, including
health, education and culture, the environment, agriculture, and security.
Regional integration has been the Caribbean collective strategic response to
the demands of the external environment, but equally CARICOM should be
viewed as an essential building block towards the goal of wider hemispheric
integration.
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