(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – ‘Regional economic integration has been top priority of Caribbean leaders for more than half a century, but it’s been nothing more than rhetoric, no action. Despite the shared history and experiences after our independence, little progress has been made in the field of regional integration. We should finally walk the talk. We should focus on concrete economic plans which will eventually lead to the integration process.’ Critical notes by Central Bank governor Gilmore Hoefdraad at the opening of the joint meeting of Caribbean governors of central banks with the Inter American Development Bank (IDB). The main objective of the meeting is to forge a joint financial and economic strategy for the region in view of the looming crisis in Europe, which might threaten the rest of the world. Expansion of the IDB’s strategic role should be studied. ‘If we take the small-scale markets of the Caribbean into consideration, integration is the right path to choose,’ IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno, who came to Suriname specifically for this occasion, says. The IDB is still the largest financier of development projects in the Caribbean. The region was awarded over 900 million in loans and donations annually in 2010 and 2011. Both Moreno and Hoefdraad pointed to the several challenges ahead for the Caribbean. The IDB executive warned that despite surviving several global crises, the general impression is that the effect of a new collapse of the global economy will be felt harder in the region this year. Europe predicts a recession this year and the US is also not doing great itself. Hoefdraad sees challenges in tourism, agriculture, energy and the financial sectors. Employment should also receive the necessary attention. Moreno pointed to the backlog in infrastructural investments and ICT developments.
