Senior Reporter
geisha.kowlessar@guardian.co.tt
Energy Chamber chairman Jerome Dookie is calling for “all barriers” to be removed to ensure the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) is truly achieved.
He says one area where “immediate action” can be taken is with the full implementation of the free movement of people.
“We need to make it easy for all our citizens to be able to move between countries in the region and for our companies to have their skilled employees available to work on projects wherever the opportunity exists,” Dookie explained.
In addition to allowing workers to move freely, he said there must also be “unified qualifications and standards” across the region.
He made the comments while speaking at the Energy Chamber’s post-AGM event at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, on Friday.
Apart from this, Dookie said one of most important advocacy objectives of the chamber is greater regional integration in the energy services sector.
He advised that there were huge potential benefits to be had from linking together the infrastructure within the region.
“... whether this be electrical grids in the Eastern Caribbean to facilitate the trade in green electrons produced by geothermal, or gas pipelines to link the newly discovered resources in Guyana and Suriname with the existing well-developed gas market in Trinidad,” Dookie explained.
Also speaking at the event, Joanne Brooks, head, CSME Unit and CSME Focal Point for T&T, noted that in July 2023, heads of governments at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, announced the decision to implement full and free movement. She emphasised that this is for not just for skills but for people within the region.
“The free movement of people will be a paradigm shift in the way our nationals access employment, expand business partnerships and create entrepreneurial opportunities,” Brooks said.
“In fact, the EU has seen a 20 per cent increase in productivity attributed directly to the free movement of workers.”
The CSME is an arrangement among the 14 Caricom member states for the creation of a single enlarged economic space through the removal of restrictions, resulting in the free movement of goods, services, people, capital and the right of establishment.