Business View Caribbean - February 2016 61
panacea, then we are going to be sorely disappointed.
And so, we are very realistic in terms of our outlook.
One of the things that our members have indicated to
us is that they want to ensure that we are on a path
to economic growth. So one of the first things that we
dealt with in our meetings at the EPOC is to ensure
that we are not only tracking the financial vehicle, in
respect to the IMF agreement, but we also want to
track what is happening with growth in the economy,
and we have started that process.
Coming out of our last meeting at EPOC, there’s a
general agreement that there needed to be a kind of
high-level committee that’s focused only on economic
growth – and we are advised that an inter-ministry
committee has now been established, acting on our
recommendation, bringing together the ministers of
finance, industry, investment and commerce, science
and technology, and mining as well, to try and put to-
gether a comprehensive plan for economic growth. Be-
cause what we are clear on is that what is being done
now in terms of putting right the economic thinkers
and data is only part of the picture, and if we don’t
deal with the question of economic growth, then we
are back at square one.
What we are focused on as well is economic growth,
and not just on meeting the financial targets that have
been set by the IMF and the other multilaterals. The
crisis is such that in terms of employment, the figures
