Business View Caribbean | December 2020

10 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN DECEMBER 2020 meaning to it by making use of the opportunities provided. He noted that significantly, the MOU gives the CPSO Observer Status at Meetings of the Community’s Organs and Bodies on matters related to the CSME. It also creates a follow-up mechanism, through a joint technical committee drawn from the CARICOM and CPSO Secretariats. The Committee is mandated to meet quarterly to keep track of the programme and to review and report back to the CARICOM Secretary-General and the CPSO Chairman and subsequently to the CARICOM Heads of Government. The Secretary-General noted the pro-active efforts of the CPSO, which has already found itself on regional committees established by the Community including: the Committee on Mergers and Acquisitions policy; the E-Commerce Committee; the Committee on Front of Label Packaging; the sub-committee on the Food Security Plan; and the CET and Rules of Origin sub-committee. He praised the CPSO’s work on the development of its “Twenty- Five by 2025” document in which it lists priority areas for investment in the Region in response to concerns about the Region’s significant food import bill. This he expects to lead to an implementable Plan of Action. “The CPSO also submitted to us a risk assessment on how to reopen our economies in this difficult time of COVID-19 which was disseminated to all Member States,” the Secretary-General noted. Mr. Warner expressed confidence that the private sector’s collaboration with the Community will help to realise the Region’s development goals. “We are confident that the goodwill that has been engendered and the cooperation fostered, and the resources applied to the fulfilment of the MOU, will set us unmistakably on the path of accelerated development for our Region and in particular towards the achievement of the goal of full implementation of the CSME,” the CPSO Chairman said. CPSO Chairman Mr. Gervase Warner (r) and Head of the CPSO Secretariat Dr Patrick Antoine during Thursday’s ceremony We are confident that the goodwill that has been engendered and the cooperation fostered will set us unmistakably on the path of accelerated development