Still some CSME challenges

The Caribbean Single Market & Economy (CSME) may be functioning, but there are still quite a few imperfections that need to be ironed out, says a top CARICOM official.

Programme manager at the CARICOM Secretariat’s CSME Unit, Ivor Carryl, told a meeting of stakeholders yesterday at Grand Barbados that the CSME was still grappling with the free movement of labour within the territories, a cultural gap and some countries’ reluctance to do business outside of their own territories.

“We have to deal with the free movement of skills. What drives an economy is its people, and free movement is a pivotal driver of the economy,” he noted.

Carryl also hammered home the point that there was a need to open up the “market space” so that people could work freely in other territories instead of honing their skills and taking them to countries outside of the CSME territories.

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