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CASTRIES, St Lucia, CMC – Chairman of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Dr. Kenny Anthony says he is looking forward to the full cooperation of all Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments as the region deals with the impact caused by the financial problems plaguing the regional insurance giant, Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO).
Anthony, the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, said that the collapse of Trinidad-based CLICO has unleashed a lot of pain across the region and any resolution has to be broached from a regional standpoint.
“You can’t really address the issue of CLICO without bringing all governments into the picture and this means that the government of Barbados needs to bring the governments of the OECS into its trust. They need to say to the OECS that we are thinking of going in this direction to deal with this issue,” he said.
Anthony said that equally Trinidad and Tobago cannot ignore its responsibilities to the OECS.
“It’s a Trinidad creation that invested heavily in the OECS, it conducted business in the OECS, and therefore what it means is that we almost have to step backwards and reinitiate dialogue among ourselves,” the OECS Chairman noted.
On Monday, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and his Antigua and Barbuda counterpart, Baldwin Spencer, warned of the implications for the regional integration movement as a result of the financial problems associated with the collapse of CLICO and its sister company, the British American Insurance Company (BAICO).
Gonsalves said the situation could “wreck” CARICOM, while Spencer has described it as the worst thing to hit his country since the Allen Stanford debacle unfolded in 2009.
The two leaders have also expressed strong concern for the plight of thousands of policyholders and investors affected across the region while insisting that justice must be done.
“Justice must be done. I mean we are not talking here about one million, two million, we are talking in the case of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) of in the region of EC$2 billion (US$800 million) in liabilities in CLICO Trinidad, CLICO Barbados and also British American,” Gonsalves said.
He said put another way, the total exposure amounted to 16 per cent GDP for ECCU countries and that it also translated into “serious damage to a lot of people’s lives” and “a new species of poverty” known as “gentile poverty” that has enveloped this region as a consequence of the insurance debacle.
Gonsalves said he therefore wants to know “if countries, for instance Trinidad, in the case of CLICO Trinidad and British American and Barbados, in the case of CLICO Barbados, don’t come up to the plate and address this matter efficaciously, where are we going in CARICOM”?
Anthony said that the sub-region has had some powerful examples of successful collaborations among themselves and believes such collaborative approaches that will help revive struggling economies within the nine nation grouping.
“The so-called weaker members of the grouping need the intervention and assistance of the region’s member countries, on the other hand countries under pressure need to embrace the regional mechanisms put in place to deal with the unique issues of the region.”
“We need each other to survive this period and the mistake made by governments of the region is that they did not use the available mechanisms of cooperation to deal with the issues that confront us. So we have to reignite the passion and the will to learn from each other,” Anthony noted.
CMC/es/pr/2012