Address by Prime Minister of Grenada Dr The Rt Hon. Keith Mitchell at the Virtual Caribbean Business Forum – Connecting & Collaborating: Establishing New Business Relationships, 17 February 2021.
Salutations
- Senator the Hon. Paula Gopee Scoon, Minister of Trade & Industry of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago
- Dr Didacus Jules, Director General, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States
- Representatives of the various private sector organisations
- Other distinguished guests, colleagues and friends logging in from around the region and beyond.
- Good morning to all.
I begin this morning by commending the organisers for partnering with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States in arranging this timely, topical and important dialogue.
The paradox of the current global situation is that while the pandemic has made physical distancing the norm, technology enables us to be closer together, and to do so without the high costs normally associated with a face-to-face event like this.
I am therefore pleased to participate in this dialogue that focusses on connecting and collaborating to establish new business relationships. My hope is that the exchange of views in this forum will lay the basis for real mutually beneficial solutions and will engender a sense of urgency in their implementation and the will to action!
Many of our Caribbean nations have a longstanding history of interdependent relations, particularly Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada. There has been a constant interchange of people, goods and services between Trinidad and Tobago and the Eastern Caribbean. Trade in agricultural products from Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines in particular to Trinidad has enabled many to provide for their families. From the other end of the trade equation, Trinidadian businesses have established an active presence in the Eastern Caribbean in the services sector, in retail business, and increasingly in financial and insurance services.
Trinidad and Tobago has also leveraged its energy advantage in the manufacturing sector, emerging as a major producer on the regional front with the Caribbean as a primary market for its beverages, processed food and other commodities. In fact, Trinidad and Tobago has long been recognised as a key supplier of goods and services to the rest of the region, consistently enjoying a hugely advantageous trade position in relation to the OECS countries.
Trade is vitally important to our survival. And regional integration as an enabler of reciprocity in relations and the aggregation of opportunity in niche CARICOM and hemispheric spaces, is essential for our sustainability. This is nothing new and it was on the bedrock of this understanding that the Founding Fathers of the West Indies Federation and its intellectual author, Sir W. Arthur Lewis shaped this historical project.
The warning from Dr Eric Williams that “one from ten leaves naught” when the fissures of the Federation were widening, was intended to be a wakeup call that the removal of one would lead to the ruin of all. Friends, although the times are different and our challenges are exponentially greater today, these words resonate for us, the smaller states of the Caribbean – the OECS. This is why we are resolute in our ambition to accelerate our own integration to better play our part in the wider regional effort.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, by whatever statistic you measured it, intra-regional trade was too skewed to suggest that we were on a trajectory toward regional economic resilience. We have struggled as a region to maintain whatever niche or favourable extra-regional export opportunities to which we have access. Intra-regional trade however, has not been optimized. We seem to prefer patronising other people’s business in the global village instead of strengthening and consolidating the wealth of our islands, through stronger business ties among each other and interacting with the global village from a position of consolidated strength. Why do we see nothing wrong with importing food and goods from all around the globe, but express objection and erect barriers to buying from our own? Sisters and brothers, something is fundamentally wrong with that approach.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced us to adopt and adapt to the changes that we have been too timid to embrace. And the irony of this is that had we been more proactive and strategic, the impact of this pandemic would have been significantly less on our health systems and our fragile economies.
The devastating impact of the pandemic on business and economy in the Caribbean and its near-fatal hit on the OECS in particular, has been well enough ventilated. It is important therefore, to identify the key lessons of that still-unfolding experience and its pointers to the way forward.
THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE NEW NORMAL
