Business View Caribbean | January 2021

15 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN JANUARY 2021 DR THE HONOURABLE KEITH ROWLEY PRIME MINISTER OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO T he Caribbean Community (CARICOM) enters this New Year 2021 with renewed hope for emerging from the darkness of the past year. The promising light at the end of the tunnel provided by the vaccine for COVID-19 provides the possibility of relief from the health and socio-economic challenges posed by the pandemic. The Community has signed on to the COVAX Facility and looks forward to receiving its quota as soon as it becomes available in the New Year. OPENING L INES NEWYEAR STATEMENT BY THE INCOMING CHAIRMAN OF THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (CARICOM) However, it will not be an immediate panacea for the ills brought upon us by the virus. The relatively successful management of the health aspects of COVID-19 by the concerted effort of all arms of the Community – Member States, Institutions and the citizens – demonstrated without a doubt that the answer to COVID is CARICOM! In the recovery phase, we must employ the same collective, coordinated and focussed actions that allowed us to control the spread of the virus. Chief among these is the discipline to maintain the protocols that help to avoid being