CARICOM Heads of Govt Meeting: Free movement, trade barriers, use of AI among Guyana’s priorities – Pres Ali

President Dr Irfaan Ali has outlined the priority areas that Guyana will be pushing at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government meeting including, but not limited to, free movement across the region, the removal of trade barriers, technology, and maintaining democracy within Member States.
Over the next few days, regional leaders will converge in Bridgetown, Barbados, for the 48th Regular Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government, which got underway Wednesday evening.

President Ali travelled to the Caribbean Island State on Wednesday, where he hit the ground running, joining his CARICOM colleagues for a presentation by innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology solutions providers from Silicon Valley.
The presentations showcased how AI can be utilised to tackle various issues, including cancer detection, enhanced and accurate diagnostics, urban planning, housing solutions, and data cloud management.
In a video message outlining his focus area for this regional engagement, the Head of State said he will be making presentations that looks at the future of the Caribbean.
“We’ll be presenting some thoughts on education, the Guyana Digital School, which we hope to come into operation by March the second, that will be available for all of Caricom; the development of a common AI strategy and plan, looking at regulations that we must implement [for the use of AI across the region],” President Ali stated.
The Guyanese leader believes that this Heads of Government meeting is coming at an important time globally, especially when there has been major shift in policy agenda and significant changes in the geopolitical realities in various regions across the world, particularly as it relates to trade arrangements – all of which, he said, Caricom has to be very mindful of and should be critical areas for discussion over the next few days.
Top of his agenda, however, is looking at ways to ease the bureaucracy and hurdles in doing business within and among Caricom Member States.
“Of course, this meeting is also looking at the historical issues of free movement of people and the trade barriers. We have expressed very strong concerns on the slothfulness of the removal of trade barriers. So, at this meeting, Guyana will be pursuing this issue…”
“The private sector in Guyana has also raised with us a number of issues in relation to trade barriers, the free movement of people. This is a substantive matter that will have a lot of attention clarification as we move towards implementation of the free movement within and among states,” President Ali noted.
The president said too that attention will also be given to the regional transportation system and the expansion of the Caribbean’s productive capacity – issues that will be tackled with the introduction of the ferry system between Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
“I believe the regional private sector organisation would have advised that they now have a former presentation to make, and they have made significant progress on this matter. So that, of course, will be discussed at the meeting,” he stated.
Another key area for Guyana is the food agenda and regional food security.
According to the Guyanese Head of State, while tremendous strides have been made in the region towards achieving the reduction of food imports by 25 per cent by 2025, there has been a lot setbacks caused by the harsh realities of 2024, as it relates to natural disasters that affected targets and food production across the region.
In addition, Guyana is expected to also push discussions on the many elections that will be taking place in the region this year, and Caricom’s role in continuing to secure democracy within the region.
Guyana, like many of its Caribbean neighbours, is slated to hold General and Regional Elections later this year. At the 2020 polls, CARICOM had played a key role in thwarting attempts to rig the March 2, 2020 elections results in Guyana and led the process for a national recount exercise to be conducted, which saw the current People’s Progressive Party/Civic administration being sworn into office five months later.
Moreover, President Ali noted that there will also be a lot of discussions on Haiti and how the region will continue to not only support the transition towards elections in Haiti, but also working on building greater international coalition and international partnership in support of the troubled Caribbean nation.
“These are all issues that are important for leaders in the region, and issues that we will continue to pursue at this meeting,” President Ali stated.
The 48th Regular Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government opened on Wednesday night and saw presentations from outgoing Chair, Prime Minister of Grenada, Dickon Mitchell; current Chair, Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, and CARICOM Secretary General Dr Carla Barnett.
Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, were the guest speakers at the opening ceremony.
The regional meeting, which is being held under theme: ‘Strength in Unity: Forging Caribbean Resilience, Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development’, will conclude on Friday.