A Caricom Private Sector Commission is Needed

The regional private sector movement is near death on minimum life support and no number of bandages and doses of dubious medicine can resuscitate it in its current incarnation. I have chosen the words carefully, avoiding the phrase “bring it back to life” because it is questionable that it ever had life-sustaining vigor in its entire existence.

Notwithstanding, the current effort by some private sector leaders around the region to revive an institution called the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) is a commendable one. However, I hold little faith in the effort gaining success. From the outset, there is a 4,000-kilogram elephant in the room that many have avoided deliberately; and that is the decision by the major private sector organisations in Trinidad and Tobago to publicly disassociate themselves from the CAIC and its current resuscitation efforts.  This is a significant hurdle to overcome. If this project has any chance of achieving its goals, its current leaders might want to make the mission of convincing the region’s largest economy to come back on board its immediate priority.  Anything short of this will only mean those good gentlemen are bound up in an exercise of futility.

For the regional private sector movement to work, it must become simultaneously regional in scope while remaining fiercely committed to its local purview.  There should be a center/periphery relationship structure. At the center there should be a Caricom Private Sector Commission (CPSC) and at the local level, the respective private sector agencies in each country should be consolidated into one group (akin to our Private Sector Commission).

For the CPSC, the individual private sector agencies would comprise the board of directors taking on a supervisory role while its administrative functions are carried out by a Commissioner empowered to represent the regional private sector at the highest decision making level of CARICOM. To make this role fully legitimate, this should include a seat at the Heads of Government’s table. It is baffling to think that the CSME is supposed to be an economic programme which should be led and executed by the private sector but, in reality, politicians always have determined all of its major decisions and timelines.  Some might say this is wishful thinking. However, if we seriously want to establish a strong regional economic space, it’s about time the respective Heads of Government view the private sector as an equally important partner at the most senior level of regional economic decision making.

The same thing can be said for negotiating trade agreements. The CPSC should employ a senior trade negotiator who also would serve on the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) panel to ensure the collective input of the private sector is represented throughout the entity’s process of deliberations and negotiations.

In addition to hiring the best qualified staff, the CPSC should leverage the available toolbox of technology to execute its mandate. For instance, the need for physical travel can be replaced effectively and efficiently through teleconferencing facilities.

As for funding, a combination of individual country private sector organisations and the Caricom Heads of Government can make the necessary allocations. This should not be a problem, as the private sector pays the bulk of taxes in each territory and thus allocating some of that money to strengthen and make them competitive on an international scale should make immediate sense. Simply, the better our private sector performs the more taxes the territories would collect.

At the local level, the capacity of the central private sector agency and its constituent members should be fortified, so they effectively can execute and implement in their respective countries the programmes and activities arising from the Caricom project or from trade agreements. We must move away from the model of government, regional, and specialised agencies implementing and executing what are essentially private sector development projects. Rather, the Chamber of Commerce organisations in individual countries should be well equipped to manage and execute programmes that build their constituent members’ capacity for global and regional trade.

Private sector leaders around the region also should push to grow their respective Chambers by making it mandatory for all businesses to join at membership fees prorated to the size of the business. This will sustain and expand private sector organisations, empowering them with the credibility and legitimacy they need to compel governments to listen and to respond to the demands and issues associated with business and economy.

To achieve these goals, we will need significant shifts in structure and our mindsets to achieve what really are pragmatic goals. Let us hope both our regional political policy makers and private sector leaders have the will and resolve to lead such a transforming effort.