Addressing the opening session of the just concluded CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica, both Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, and Gaston Browne, the Prime Minister of Antigua, spoke about the need to radically improve inter-regional travel.
Ms Mottley repeated her view that unless it becomes possible to move freely within the Caribbean using a CARICOM multi-purpose identification card, the regional integration process was unlikely to flourish. What was required, she said, was “hassle-free travel” and a “single domestic space for transportation.” This, she observed, would facilitate economic development and the interchange of ideas, while encouraging a sense of common purpose that would ultimately strengthen regional integration.
Committing her government to working urgently with partner governments to make LIAT, the sub-regional air carrier, “an affordable and reliable service,” she spoke also about the need for much-studied inter-island ferry services to be taken from concept to reality to the benefit of business and citizens.
