Commentary: The Greater Caribbean This Week: The ACS on the agenda of sub-regional organisations
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| Published on Saturday, May 26, 2007 |
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By Watson R. Denis
The greater Caribbean includes sub-regional organisations which work in the area of economic integration. Organisations such as CARICOM (Caribbean Community), SICA (Central American Integration System) and SIECA (Central American Economic Integration System) play a decisive role in the integration process. All of these organisations have achieved something to energise the integration process in the region. For example, the establishment and implementation of the CARICOM CSME (Single Market and Economy) last year is a giant step towards effective integration.
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| Dr Watson Denis is the Political Advisor at the Secretariat of the Association of Caribbean States. Feedback can be sent to: mail@acs-aec.org |
Integration also implies co-operation. As a result, the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) was created in 1994 to facilitate closer relations between the sub-regions of the Greater Caribbean through dialogue and co-ordination, and to develop regional co-operation. The ACS therefore represents a space for the dialogue needed between the insular Caribbean, Central America, and the three Latin American states (Colombia, Mexico and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela) washed by or bordering the Caribbean Sea. It also responds to the need for more dynamic co-operation in four key areas of activity identified by the Member States and Associate Members of the Association - Natural Disasters, Transport, Sustainable Tourism, and Trade Development. Since its creation, the ACS has not ceased to re-structure and strengthen itself in order to respond to the expectations of its members and the founding objectives which led to its creation.
This constant re-structuring and institutional strengthening has always been recognised by sub-regional organisations. This year, they placed special emphasis on this. They see the ACS as a favourable public space for eliciting political dialogue and developing functional regional co-operation. Thus, on February 22, CARICOM and SICA signed a historic Plan of Action in which they opted to use the institutional channels of the ACS to explore for example, the opportunities they can obtain in promoting and developing trade in the Greater Caribbean. Similarly, they focused on the ACS for strengthening their work in Tourism and Transport.
In addition, at the 10th Meeting of the CARICOM Council for Foreign and Community Relations held on May 10-11, 2007 in Belize City, Belize, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs attending the meeting recognised that the ACS is a vehicle for political commitment and the implementation of functional co-operation between countries of the Greater Caribbean. On that occasion, they also called for greater participation by Member States and Associate members in the Association’s projects and activities. They also highlighted the positive work done by the ACS Secretariat and the Caribbean Sea Commission set up by the ACS for protecting and safeguarding the Caribbean Sea, and they welcomed Resolution 61/197 adopted at the 61st Session of the UN General Assembly entitled “Towards the Sustainable development of the Caribbean Sea for Present and Future Generations”.
Similarly, 21 representatives of countries of the Greater Caribbean, including 11 Heads of State and Government, also meeting in Belize City on May 12, 2007, for the CARICOM-SICA Summit, issued a Declaration commending the creation of the Caribbean Sea Commission, and highlighted the scope of the latest UN resolution on the Caribbean Sea to recognise this Sea as a special area in the context of sustainable development.
The ACS, for its part, far from being too proud of the confidence placed in it and the place it currently occupies on the agenda of sub-regional organisations, has found another reason to continue working with determination to strengthen its operational structures and, more and more, to better respond to expectations.
Moreover, it must be stressed that the closer ties being forged at this time between CARICOM and SICA partners are a praiseworthy initiative. In this regard, the discussions undertaken between these two bodies on the Free Trade Agreement during the CARICOM-SICA Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Belize must be encouraged. In the final analysis, once such a project is completed, it will strengthen not only co-operation between these two geographical zones, but also in the Greater Caribbean in general. Continued strengthening, the vitalisation of the ACS and its even stronger projection onto the regional and international scene require such close relations between players in the region.
The views expressed are not necessarily the official views of the ACS. Feedback can be sent to: mail@acs-aec.org | | | | Reads : 188 | | | |
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