ICT could help to bridge communication gap in Caricom – Granger

As regional leaders meet for another Caribbean Community (Caricom) Heads of Government meeting in Grenada, President David Granger, the outgoing Chairman of the regional body, said the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) will be on top of the agenda.
Granger told a delegation of Guyanese media operatives that ICT could serve to eliminate the communication barriers faced among the 15-member states of Caricom, while admitting that distance cannot be easily overcome given the complexities of the Region.
“The Caribbean is a peculiar jurisdiction. You are talking about 3000 square kilometres of sea space and from as far as The Bahamas to Paramaribo. The distance can’t be easily overcome Communication has always been a problem and ICT will be on the agenda for this Caricom meeting,” he added.
The Guyanese Head of State stressed that ICT could be used to drive the message of regional integration to a higher level. “Yes, we always need to do more to educate our citizens but what I would like to say a lot is being done. It’s through ICT we will try to bridge this gap. Caricom headquarters has done a lot.”
Granger said that governments and the regional media also need to play its part. “Regional integration is not sexy. When things go bad, there is a lot of news coverage but there is a lot of day to day work going on in the Region it’s not just reported on,” he claimed.
According to him, there are many things happening within the Region but these issues are hardly ever reported. “The way we deal with disease, education and functional cooperation but it’s happening all the time,” Granger said because these are not sexy topics.
Referring to his stint as Chairman of Caricom, the President said the Region was able to put more clearly in focus the need for the community to speak with a single voice. He referred to a meeting which was held in Washington in May this year, which required all regional Foreign Affairs Ministers to agree on a common response to the crisis within the Organisation of American States (OAS).
“We were able to use various devices, particularly face to face conversations and teleconferencing as far as possible. It’s a work in progress and we understand the concerns of member states and we will continue working. It is one of the pillars of the community, so we have to continue to ensure there is no difference between various states and this is what diplomacy is all about,” Granger said.
In providing a short comment on the issues to be discussed at the regional meeting, Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge said that the agenda for this year’s meeting is lengthy. He said while there are all important issues, he is not confident that all of them would be discussed.
Nevertheless, Greenidge said that there will be discussions surrounding the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) and reports on the progress achieved so far and where we go in the future.
The Minister said if the Region is looking to set benchmarks and check on the progress to be made in relation to the various measures of social economic progress, they would need to ensure that they are properly covered by the national regional statistic agencies and censuses.
Other matters on the packed agenda include crime and security, border issues, health, climate adaptation, renewable energy, and Brexit.