Poverty & Social Development: A Caribbean Perspective

Friday, July 06, 2007

Digging into the Evidence: The comparative advantage of Regional Integration for the CARICOM

It’s very good to know that the process of Regional Integration for the CARICOM has been refreshed in the lights of new thinking that surfaced from the past CARICOM Heads of Government Conference.

As noted by some analysts, see here, this perspective comes to the shores by trying to move beyond the classical concepts that have been rocking certain dominant issues such as trade and economic development by stepping in with a broad praxis, where complementarities in terms of economic and regional growth centers are approached with some quintessential elements that evolve around improvements in the people’s standard of living.

And yes, as a matter of fact, by addressing such an overhaul when it comes to thinking and actions also means that the dynamics of human development and regional cooperation/integration should be looked upon from various angles and issues that are not solely falling within the span of political choices. In other words, a process whereby policy and decision-makers in the region should put a stress on the role of public policies and the jurisdictional, ethical and conceptual references that come to grip with the fundamentals to balance institutional stability and planning capacity.