BARBADOS-POLITICS-Regional leaders discuss wide ranging issues including

CARICOM BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Prime Minister Freundel Stuart hinting that the global economic crisis may have forced Caribbean countries to become more inward looking, says nonetheless the regional integration movement is “alive and well.”

  “The perception that the (regional integration) process has slowed, I think, may have more to do with the fact that the stakeholder countries have had to become more inward looking as they deal with the economic challenges from the global economic downturn,” he said as he welcomed his Grenadian counterpart Dr. Keith Mitchell during a courtesy call.

Prime Minister Stuart said that there is a view that the regional integration movement was being treated as a synonym of the single market and single economy and its success was being measured by progress in this area only.