By Ben Meade
THE VALLEY, Anguilla, CMC – Leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are meeting here this week while being reminded of the gains made over the past three decades and tasked with finding ways to survive in an increasingly challenging global economic environment.

During the 50th meeting of the OECS Authority that closes on Friday, leaders will focus on working towards signing a new treaty to create a single economic space within the nine-country grouping and finding ways to lessen the impact of the global downturn on their economies and the spin-off impact on their citizens.

Director General of the St Lucia-based OECS Secretariat, Dr. Len Ishmael noted the battering the island nations have faced over the past 20 months due to the “financial upheaval both inside and outside of this region” that have tested “the very mettle of the social, economic and political fabric of this region.”

In addition to what has transpired on the global front, OECS states have been hit by the financial woes at CLICO and British American Insurance Company – two subsidiaries of the beleaguered Trinidad-based CL Financial Group – and by the collapse of the Stanford baking empire in Antigua and Barbuda.

“If ever confirmation was required of the need for Small Island Developing States, such as these, to put in place mechanisms to deploy regional responses to tough situations when they arise, the travails of the recent past certainly have provided much by way of witness,” Ishmael said, adding that the sub-region was ahead of the curve relating to its responses to such difficulties.

“The OECS arrangements simply shone in comparison to other members of the [wider Caribbean Community] CARICOM family unable to deploy such regional institutional mechanisms…were demonstrably slow by comparison as a group to responding to the rigour of these times.”

OECS Chairman and St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, Dr Denzil Douglas said while the sub-region has much to be proud about in the way its member countries have worked together to confront such issues, “we should not allow ourselves to be lulled into complacency”.

“This we can ill-afford in a word that has been altered so dramatically in the last few years and which is constantly experiencing transformation…that is why we have found it necessary in recent years to embark upon a process of strategic repositioning of the OECS in order that it may continue to maintain relevance and the capacity to deliver on the goal of the dreams and aspirations of our own OECS citizens well into the future,” he said.

Among the OECS responses to a changing world, is the agreement on the need to press ahead with plans to create an economic union that is scheduled to begin taking effect in a phased in manner from the middle of next year after being signed by government leaders this December.

However, Montserrat Chief Minister Reuben Meade said while the 50th meeting of the OECS Authority is a significant milestone, there remain a significant number of unnecessary impediments which keep the citizens of the OECS asking what is the true essence of the integration efforts being undertaken in the sub-region, particularly the development of an economic union.

“Mr Chairman, my call today is that we balance the high level integration activities in banking, securities exchange and automatic payment systems with the ease of travel and doing business that we continue to promise the people of the OECS.

“I recognise that we are small, but since it is quite clear that we have some very gifted people, it is just to my mind a matter of prioritising to enable and motivate our people,” Meade said.

Those sentiments were echoed by Anguilla’s Chief Minister, Osbourne Fleming, who warned that “collectively as a sub-region, we must stand together or perish apart” as the countries of the OECS, in seeking to protect the gains they have made over the past three decades face “a fight that we must win”.

“Small islands like ours will have to do more with less. We also have to bind ourselves together to weather this storm through our regional integration process,” he said.

Dr said it was evident that the OECS has been on the right track with the initiatives undertaken over the greater part of the past three decades and urged leaders not to let their guard down while charting the course ahead.

“Armed with this reassurance, there is every reason for us to look ahead, therefore, with confidence and it is with this renewed confidence that I say to you, as Chairman of the OECS Authority, come now, let us proceed with the task of building on this great legacy which has been bequeathed to us by the founding fathers of the OECS,” said the Kittitian leader.

Other leaders attending the talks here include Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer and Prime Minister Tillman Thomas of Grenada. St Lucia’s Stephenson King, was scheduled to arrive on Thursday after travel delays. Premier of the British Virgin Islands, Ralph O’Neal was also expected to join his colleagues on Thursday.
Absent are Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and his St Vincent and the Grenadines counterpart, Ralph Gonsalves, both of whom opted to stay at home to deal with domestic political issues and were each represented by their respective OECS Ambassadors, Charles Maynard and Elsworth John.

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