David Jessop

Late last November when Commonwealth leaders met in Malta, a blunt exchange took place between Caribbean heads of government and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

It reflected a sense, then preva-lent across the region, that the United Kingdom could have done more with its European Union (EU) counterparts to ameliorate the impact of the European Commission's (EC) proposal to cut the price of sugar by 36 per cent over three years.

More generally, the anger reflected a pent up sense that Britain had lost all interest in the region.

In most respects, this was based on an unrealistic assumption about the extent of Britain's interests in the Caribbean and London's ability to obtain support for its views in an enlarged Europe.

It was also a misreading of the nature of the political support that the U.K. was prepared to offer to Caribbean nations in economic transition.

Despite this, it hit its mark and a chastened British Prime Minister agreed to see how Britain, in some important but small ways, might help ease the process of change.

Since then, much water has flowed under this bridge. A new European sugar regime is in place, the price cuts for ACP; sugar have begun to take effect; and, as was wholly predictable, delivery of the EC measures to support the restructuring of sugar industries has ceased to bear any relationship to the time scales of the real world.

But, more importantly, there has been a sea of change at the highest levels in most Caribbean governments. A new realism has emerged, albeit reluctantly in some cases. Most governments, if not their institutions or those who support them politically, have recognised that whether they like it or not, the preferential arrangements that for decades supported the region's primary agriculture and by extension employment, were at an end.

There has also been a largely silent recognition that the coming into being of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the negotiation of freer trade arrangements with Europe and Canada, that the region has little alternative but to adapt and deliver investment in newer industries.

In practical terms, this means that most Caribbean governments, and particularly those faced with a transition out of sugar, have begun to recognise to varying degrees that a new Caribbean economy beckons.

Structural Reforms

Despite this, many are still unwilling to undertake the structural reforms necessary for local, regional and international investment to flourish. The consequence is that rhetoric about supporting primary agriculture has been replaced by an uneasy relationship with the language of competition.

Why this should be seems to reflect the fact that there is still little philosophical underpinning in politics in the region for the concepts of enhancing national and regional competitiveness, providing incentives to encourage new industries, finding a new role for Government, removing bureaucracy and encouraging a viable and responsible private sector.

Put another way, few of the region's political parties have undergone the radical changes in thinking of the kind that the British Labour Party experienced when it found a way to relate the market to a continuing social role as the primary provider of public welfare.

While the debate on this still rumbles on in the United Kingdom and other EU member states, it simply does not exist in most Caribbean nations. This is despite the fact that future economic success and governments' capacity to fund the social programmes that Caribbean electorates expect will depend to an ever-increasing extent on the ability of the service sector to generate taxable revenues.

Some still believe that the message of generating efficiency and competitiveness only belongs to the political right, but China and Vietnam have shown that even those committed to socialist centrally directed models have recognised the power of freeing the market, encouraging investment and its capacity to generate the growth and wealth that underwrites the states social objectives.

Curiously, this debate has not taken place to any great extent in the Anglophone Caribbean where the parties of the 'right' and the 'left' remain largely unreconstructed and locked into the economic rhetoric of the 1960s.

Where change has occurred, the issue of political philosophy is sometimes fudged by simply superimposing the language of market economics on bureaucracies that continue to believe that the state should be controlling.

Yet even in Cuba, albeit in a different context and with caution, a semi public debate has begun about how best to introduce new efficiencies, remove corruption and re-motivate workers so that the market might lead to new ways of increasing efficiencies and incentives that produce growth that benefits society as a whole.

On November 2 in London those Caribbean governments and companies from across the region will have a chance to discuss the value of a new approach when they participate in an unusual conference that stems from the frank debate in Malta about the consequences of the end of preference.

This event, which is largely at the initiative of Prime Minister Tony Blair with the active support of Barbados' Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, is aimed at encouraging awareness about the new Caribbean economy, its investment needs and possible new financing mechanisms. Unlike most of the talking shops that the Caribbean has become so used to, speakers and participants have equal weight and are expected to actively debate the issues with one another.

Participants include Sir Roger Douglas a previous Cabinet Minister in New Zealand who is expected to relate the challenges facing the Caribbean to his experience in revitalising the economy of his country to the challenges facing the region; and Lord Robertson, a previous NATO Secretary General and British Defence Minister, will speak about his experience of managing change.

There will also be a wide range of senior representatives from the Caribbean and European business community who will focus on the new opportunities in services, tourism and what is described as the new Caribbean agricultural economy. Participants from the Caribbean include the Prime Minister of Belize, Said Musa, President Jagdeo of Guyana and Prime Minister Arthur.

Changing thinking often involves altering perceptions. The conference is a small and practical step in this direction. Let us hope that all of those present can begin to rise to the challenge of creating a new Caribbean economy.

David Jessop is director of the Caribbean Council. Email: david.jessop@caribbean-council.org.