The Chairman’s address for the new year
CARICHAM Chairman, Dax Driver, speaking at the virtual Launch of the Trinidad & Tobago Energy Conference, 26th January 2021, Port of Spain.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the first edition of our new CARICHAM newsletter. Last year was an extremely difficult one for the Caribbean, as the region struggled with the fall-out of the global Coronavirus pandemic. Most of our countries have done a good job at controlling the spread of the virus but that has come as a huge economic and social cost. In a region where tourism is the mainstay of many of the economies, the strict restrictions on international travel have had a major impact on economies and on the members of the Chambers within the CARICHAM network. Even in the economies more reliant upon commodity exports, the fall in global prices has had a severe impact.
In a crisis many companies look to their respective Chambers to help them navigate the stormy waters. These are challenging times for Chambers of Industry and Commerce across the Caribbean, with many of our members struggling to pay membership dues in these tough economic times. However, this is the time when Chambers can also show their value to their membership.
Most Chambers in CARICHAM have quickly grabbed the opportunity to offer many more services virtually and across the region Chambers have switched from hosting the traditional face-to-face meetings to online webinars and similar sessions. In 2019 when CARICHAM was founded, we built it on the idea that we would leverage technology to keep in contact, rather than having to spend heavily on occasional face-to-face meetings and the high travel and accommodation cost associated with that approach. That concept has served us very well and we were ready to switch to virtual as soon as the pandemic hit the region.
In 2020, CARICHAM implemented an extremely successful Regional Growth webinar series, with lots of great content. We have been using the technology to make sure we are all well networked and frequently communicating. This has helped build common private-sector positions, for example on the front of packaging labels issue for food and beverage manufacturers and distributors. It has also allowed us to link with important regional and international stakeholders, such as the UNDRR, the ACP Secretariat, Caribbean Export and the CARICOM Secretariat.
While 2021 has started with the immediate term outlook for the region still very challenging, there are indications that by mid-year economies may be able to gradually reopen as vaccine programmes begin to roll-out. I do not think, however, that we will be going “back to normal”. Indeed, there is going to be a new normal, with work being conducted in quite different ways compared to 2019 and before. This will create different and exciting new opportunities for both individual Chambers and CARICHAM as a network.
There is a new spirit of regional cooperation in the Caribbean and we need to capitalise on this regional private-sector development. It is going to be important for all Chambers to continue to share best practices and lessons learnt as we show our individual members the value that we bring. While we are still in the midst of the economic storm, I am confident about our collective future and for brighter days ahead.
