The top Caribbean civil servant has warned regional countries not to depend on remittances alone to sustain them, as it could not, but to expand their economies to adequately meet the growing demands of the Caribbean people.

Caricom Secretary-general Dr Edwin Carrington also reiterated that the loss of skilled and qualified labour could be crippling to the region’s growth and development and urged countries to adopt economically appealing strategies to stem migration to developed countries.

Carrington’s warning held the rapt attention of the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) 2006 Caribbean Media Awards ceremony at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies Saturday night.

At the ceremony at the Mona Visitor’s Lodge, a total of eight media personnel from across the region received top honours for outstanding work on population and development issues.

The local winners were HOT-102 FM’s ‘This Morning’ curent affairs show with presenters Emily Crooks, Beverly Anderson-Manley and Arlene Amitirigala; the production team from ‘Nationwide News Network’; RJR producer Sasha Henriques; producer/presenter at CVM Susan Simes; Gleaner news editor Lynford Simpson and Gleaner/Power 106 reporter Andrea Downer.

Natalie Edgecombe, producer at People’s Television in Montserrat, Cedriann Martin, freelance features writer at the Trinidad Express and Judy Fitzpatrick of the Daily Herald in St Maarten were the other winners. In the keynote address to the media personnel, Carrington stressed the dangers to the Caribbean of its skilled people migrating, usually in search of greener pastures.

He noted that almost all Caribbean countries were among the top 20 countries in the world with the highest tertiary educated emigration rates. For example, the region was losing about 400 nurses per year to the developed nations, and Guyana, in the last five years alone, had lost 80 per cent of its tertiary-educated citizens.

“The majority of Caribbean countries have lost more than 50 per cent of their labour force in the tertiary segment and more than 30% in the secondary education segment,” Carrington disclosed, using International Monetary Fund research.

“The virtual exodus of valuable professional skills compromises the attainment of the region’s broader development goals…(and) the total losses due to skilled emigration far outweigh the recorded remittances for the region on average and in the individual countries,” he said.

“We will only stem the tide when we expand our economies, increase professional and job opportunities and accentuate social mobility fast enough to satisfy the growing expectations of our people.”

But Carrington said it was expected that intra-regional migration would be on the rise with the establishment of the Caricom Single Market and Economy.