Caribbean Needs To Get Busy Now To Take Advantage of EPA??Says PM Golding

Prime Minister Bruce Golding says he wants to see Caribbean companies coming together in joint ventures because each country acting independently will not be able to penetrate the European markets nor be able to achieve the levels of efficiency that will allow each country to get into that market and to dominate it. He is of the view that the European Partnership Agreement (EPA) will provide a challenge to which the region must respond.
Mr Golding was speaking at a press briefing this afternoon at the 19th intercessional meeting of Caricom Heads of Government in the Bahamas, following his presentation on the implications of the Cariforum/EU Economic Partnership Agreement and the appropriate strategy for future trade negotiations, Mr Golding said Caricom countries can now look at investors across the world and invite them to invest in their country in order to get into the European market-duty free, quota free.
‘This is a great opportunity to attract foreign investment but the foreign investments won’t arrive in the region, we have to go into the investment markets. It is a commodity and it has to be marketed’, Mr Golding said.
He said Caribbean countries need to find the right niches because there is a market out there of 450-million people and if the region could penetrate even a small part of that market, then thousands of jobs could be created for Caribbean peoples. He said Jamaica was playing its part in putting a lot of effort behind creating a brand which will be used to impact on the market. ‘If we sit around and wait on EPA to transform our lives, it will never happen. We need to get busy’, Mr Golding said.
The Caricom heads will continue the discussions following the resumption of the sessions this afternoon.