CSME needed to rescue COVID-hit economies
Published:Sunday | May 17, 2020 | 9:17 AMPaul Clarke/Gleaner Writer
COVID-19-ravaged regional economies, including Jamaica, will need the united strength of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) to help revive their micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sectors, many of which have been decimated.
That is the conclusion of small-business operators who spoke on the matter during a webinar of regional industry players via Zoom yesterday.
Guyanese businesswoman Lyndell Danzie-Black, owner of Black-Cerulean Incorporated, a corporate training and consulting company based in Georgetown, said the CSME, post the coronavirus pandemic, will become even more relevant.
She said that the single market is one of the areas that have been put forward as facilitators of small businesses across regional borders and that while persons are unable to freely move from island to island due to the outbreak, each island state has a significantly sophisticated online presence that can be leveraged to accommodate commercial activity.
“I believe that taking stock of online platforms that can facilitate trade intra-regionally is something that would really help small businesses,” Danzie-Black said.
“This is something that could start immediately. However, the issue of payment platforms is also important in that regard. We have to have a playing ground where we, as small businesses, can meet each other throughout the Caribbean and transact business,” she noted.
The CSME is an initiative currently being explored by the CARICOM that would integrate all its member states into a single economic bloc.
While there has been extensive talk around the CSME since it was first mooted in 1990, actionable outcomes are yet to be realised.
President of the Small Business Association of Jamaica Hugh Johnson said that a fully operational CSME is the only way to go for survival, reasoning that the size of the Jamaican economy does not lend itself to any kind of economy of scale to move certain sectors forward without the assistance of regional integration and trade.
“It was for this very reason why Europe came together, and the world around also realised no single country can survive on its own, but for some reason, we, in this region, are too parochial in our thinking, and it’s hurting us badly,” Johnson, who commented on the matter, said.
DECLINE IN JAMAICA
In the case of Jamaica, Johnson told The Gleaner that the small-business sector had already declined nearly 85 per cent and had lost billions since the COVID-19 outbreak. Johnson said operators are rightly focusing on physical survival first over the sustainability of their business.
“The small-business sector in Jamaica is pretty resilient. We are, first and foremost, entrepreneurs, and we will rebound,” he said.
The webinar panellists believe that the COVID-19 impact could, however, create a surge towards action in achieving the CSME mandate.
Dr Ashley John, executive director of Constructive Solutions Inc, based in St Vincent and the Grenadines, said that would require regional leaders to accept regionalism as much as their own nationalistic views.
“We are still finding that to be the case, and to me, it seems to be a conflict in implementing the CSME properly when individual leaders are still fighting for their own sovereignty.
“Different countries want to do what they like rather than work together.”
He said that asking business people to register in every different country where they want to do business is very awkward and non-productive.
“If you have a CSME framework and you register in Barbados, you should not be required to register in St Vincent again. That needs to be really looked at,” said John.