A FRESH effort is to be made at this week’s Inter-Sessional Meeting of Caribbean Community Heads of Government to move in the direction of harmonisation of regional air transportation.

It is a priority agenda issue for the three-day meeting of Caricom leaders that gets under way this morning in Kingstown, with at least three Heads of Government expected to be absent -Haiti’s Rene Preval; Belize’s Said Musa and The Bahamas’ Perry Christie.

The meeting, hosted by Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, current Caricom chairman, will also be focused on advancing arrangements for the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME); creation of a Caribbean Development Fund and establishment of a new governance mechanism in the form of a Caricom Commission with executive authority.

A major feature of the new initiative on harmonisation of regional air transportation – that could also extend to Air Jamaica – is the consideration of a viable commercial alliance between Trinidad and Tobago’s new Caribbean Airline and the recently merged entity Liat, Star of the Caribbean.

Key players in advancing the initial commercial alliance between Caribbean Airlines and Liat, Star of the Caribbean, are expected to be the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves, Trinidad and Tobago (Patrick Manning), Barbados (Owen Arthur) and Antigua and Barbuda (Baldwin Spencer).

Gonsalves, who has lead responsibility among Caricom leaders for civil aviation, has been actively involved in private discussions with Manning in the forging of a commercial alliance.

The response from the government in Port of Spain is said to be “very crucial” for moving towards harmonisation in regional air transportation.

Latest proposals for the creation of a US$250 million Caribbean Development Fund will be included in a report to the Kingstown Inter-Sessional from Saturday’s meeting of the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP) in Barbados, chaired by Prime Minister Arthur.

The Caribbean Development Bank has been playing a major role in arrangements for the Fund, and its President, Dr Compton Bourne, told the Observer yesterday that he was “quite optimistic” for the project to be operationalised following the coming annual Caricom Summit in July in Barbados.

“Much work has been done and the stage is well set for us to launch the Fund, consistent with commitments already indicated by the Community’s governments and foreign partners,” Bourne said.

Another major agenda issue for the Kingstown Inter-Sessional will be advancing plans to complete the framework arrangements for the CSME in 2008. Critical guidelines for consideration have been provided in a working document prepared by Dr Norman Girvan, conceptualised as a “single economy and a single development vision”.

Also to be considered, is a report from the “Core Group on the Jagdeo Initiative” on regional agricultural development – a project for which Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo has lead responsibility among Community leaders.

Other agenda matters for consideration will be the very challenging problems of crime and security and the status of arrangements for Cricket World Cup 2007.