Chairman of the CARICOM Commission on the Economy, Barbados Senator Darcy Boyce says it does CARICOM Member States no good when concessionary funds are allowed to go to waste. Mr. Boyce who is a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office was delivering the feature address on Friday at a CARICOM Regional Technical Meeting on the Implementation of the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) CSME and Economic Integration Programme. Senator Boyce said that CARICOM economies have struggled over the last ten years and there is a tremendous amount of work to be done to overcome such hurdles. He stated that part of the solution is to ensure that the CSME works for the benefit of all economies and “…we cannot run away from the CARICOM Single Market and Economy…”

According to Minister Boyce what is necessary is to make sure that the Community pillars are so structured that Member States are able to benefit from those pillars. He is of the view that a great deal of the economic resilience mentioned in the Community Strategic plan will happen through the implementation of the CSME, but that it is built out in a way that would make each country stronger.

He is advising CARICOM Member States to take advantage of the resources available under the 10th EDF to build the capacity within their economies.