PM Anthony.
PRESS RELEASE - Prime Minister Dr. Kenny D. Anthony left Saint Lucia today, Wednesday, July 2, 2014 to attend the 35th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
The meeting is currently underway in Antigua and Barbuda and ends on July 4, 2014. The prime minister said he is encouraged that a report of CARICOM’s Commission on the Economy has been given priority on the agenda.
In February 2013, while addressing the opening ceremony of the 25th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Prime Minister Anthony called for a “big conversation on the future of Caribbean economies”.
Dr. Anthony remarked, “the unvarnished truth is that our economies need each other to survive and prosper. Trinidadian manufacturers cannot prosper if regional economies are anemic with little prospect to return to high levels of growth.”
Since then, CARICOM has moved to establish a Commission on the Regional Economy, whose task is to review the economies of the region and develop a plan of action to assist CARICOM countries to cope with their fiscal challenges, high debt and chronic levels of unemployment.
According to the prime minister, “the commission was appointed on the suggestion of Saint Lucia and for that reason we have keen interest in its recommendations. It has taken CARICOM a long time to get to this point. Time is of the essence if we are to arrest the increasingly delicate economic situation in the economies of the Eastern Caribbean.”
Minister for Infrastructure, Port Services and Transport Philip J. Pierre will act as prime minister during Dr. Anthony’s absence.