By: Staff Writer
July 5, 2022
The President of Suriname, Chandrikapersad “Chan” Santokhi, said that the CARICOM will add to its mandate an Industrial Policy.
President Santokhi, speaking at a joint press briefing for the CARICOM Secretariat at the 43rd Regular Meeting of the Heads of Government for CARICOM, said that there are some “new” items on the agenda for CARICOM and one of them will be the industrial policy, which he will present the first draft to the members and other international institutions.
Mr Santokhi, who is also the incoming chairman, also said: “We will discuss also, the community as a whole, the reorganization, we will discuss also issues which are also in the portfolio of Suriname for example, the youth policy and as you know, Suriname is the head of the portfolio, which are on the quasi-cabinet of Suriname within the framework of CARICOM and has culture, gender, youth sport and now added with industrial policy.”
Traditional examples of industrial policy include subsidizing export industries and import-substitution-industrialization (ISI), where trade barriers are temporarily imposed on some key sectors, such as manufacturing. This will aid with some of the fear of competition some of the Caribbean member states have with import-competing products that are harmful to their agricultural sectors with the agricultural policy now beginning to take shape in the Caribbean bloc as a primary focus with a working group established last year with Guyana taking the lead.
Some of the other hot-ticket items will be discussed in closed sessions or in “caucus,” particularly issues with regard to regional security and the longstanding unrest and political instability in Haiti.
Mr Santokhi also said: “The necessity of further strengthening of the bond between the nations of CARICOM and the necessity to evaluate what fruits CARICOM has brought to its members, this is something that shall have our special attention during this meeting.”
Climate Change is also another issue on the agenda as the region tries desperately to get the attention and commitment of the larger, developed nations to commit to a more sustainable path to development away from fossil fuels and high carbon emissions.
Mr Santokhi said: “Like other members, we have to deal with the effects of climate change. We do so while being one of the few countries in the world with a status of carbon negative. And that is what we want to keep.
“CARICOM as a whole is dealing with these effects and we shall need to discuss this matter. For we, as CARICOM members, are not ranked as the highest contributors to climate change, yet still, we have to deal with these issues.