GEORGETOWN, Guyana, (CMC) – Caribbean Community (Caricom) chairman, Mia Mottley Wednesday said that the 15-member regional integration movement begins 2025 at the crossroads of immense challenges and extraordinary opportunities against a backdrop of global uncertainty.

In a New Year message, Mottley, who is also the Barbados prime minister, said “how we act, united as a people, and as nations will define not only this year, 2025, but the legacy of our generation.

“The Caribbean is far more than a geographic space. We know it. It is a living testament to the power of courage, creativity, and our collective strength. Ours is a history marked by resilience, a word that we will have to embrace more and more in our future,” Mottley said.

She said time and again the region has faced storms most natural and manmade and risen stronger, more determined than ever, united in shaping its destiny.

She said that the Caribbean region is at an important juncture beginning 2025 against that backdrop of global uncertainty.

“The aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic linger. The worsening climate crisis endangers our homes and livelihoods…the devastating conflicts in Sudan and Ukraine and Gaza and Lebanon reverberate far beyond their borders, while in our community, the multifaceted crisis in Haiti demands urgent, thoughtful and compassionate solutions, and we pray for the continued stability of our relations between Guyana and Venezuela,” Mottley said.

But she said that these challenges, while testing the resolve of the Caribbean people also underscore the urgency of adaptation, resilience and bold action.

“The Caribbean must not only weather these storms, but we must lead in crafting solutions for a changing world,” she said, adding that central to the mission must be resuming the full implementation of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME)  that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the region.

“We paused our coordinated actions on this noble but critical mission as we applied all that we could muster to fight COVID and its trail of economic and social upheaval. But five years on, we must resume our work on the CSME,” she argued.

Mottley said that the CSME is not merely an economic agenda, saying it is a vision of unity and opportunity for small states who know that they can achieve so much more together than individually.

“Full realisation of the CSME, including above all else, yes, the free movement of our nationals is essential for unlocking the true potential of our people and our economies,” she said adding that “so is the necessity for the region to attain and go beyond the target that it has set for itself for food and nutritional security, best exemplified by the “Vision 25 by 2025” agenda, dating back to 2021.”

“We must now focus, my friends, to apply the few but necessary recommendations of the distinguished Caricom Commission on Economy, who reported to us in the middle of the pandemic, when we were justifiably distracted. The pooling of our sovereignty must also be better addressed by the pooling of our efforts, from investment to skills to procurement. We can do better together.

“We must also confront the injustices of the global financial system, which continue to marginalise Small Island and Low-lying Developing States (SIDS). Unjust blacklisting practices, and insufficient access to concessional financing hinder our sustainable development efforts,” said Mottley.

Mottley said Caricom will persist in advocating for reforms championed in the Bridgetown Initiative and working with others, like the 73 vulnerable countries in the Climate Vulnerable Forum “as we fight for a better financial landscape regionally and globally, within which we can build resilience, prosperity and yes, equity – fairness – for all our people.

“We also urge the adoption and the laser like refining of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) to secure critical resources for our region’s future as we face these crises that are often beyond our control to avoid, but for which we must strengthen our resilience to survive,” she argued.

But she said in so doing, the Caribbean must urgently settle a floor of rights as a community for its people so that agreement can be reached on what must be the minimum protection and the opportunities that each and every Caribbean person must benefit from while instilling the need for each to live daily lives to do better by family, communities, country, and region.

“Our home will only be as good in this region as we collectively make it. We remain inspired by the principles of Ubuntu – “I am because we are”.”

She said in tandem, the region must deliver on the commitments of the recently concluded George-Bridge Declaration, which built on the regional symposium in Port of Spain that recognised crime and violence as a public health issue in the Caribbean.

Mottley said this declaration reached in Guyana prioritises citizen security and safety by addressing it as a public health challenge while innovating and strengthening the efforts nationally and regionally in law enforcement and the modernisation of the criminal justice systems.

“This is absolutely critical for the majority of our people who simply want to ensure that the zone of peace that we aspire to as a region for the Caribbean is a lived reality in each of our communities. We look forward to the meeting in Saint Kitts and Nevis this year, which will add to the meetings in Trinidad and Guyana on this most critical of issues that affects each and every Caribbean person,” she stated.

Mottley said that the region must also welcome as a community, the declaration of the second decade for people of African descent, beginning January 1, 2025.

“This achievement reflects the tireless advocacy of our region and the strides made during the first decade, including global recognition of our 10- point plan for reparatory justice and the establishment of the United Nations Permanent Forum for People of African Descent.

“Yet, my friends, so much remains to be done in this area. We must continue to press the international community for a mature, face to face conversation at all levels, so that we may see them repair the damage from the exploitation through the immoral institutions of slavery and colonialism which our people suffered from,” she argued.

Mottley said there is also the need to urge the international community to provide resources necessary to improve the dignity, security and material conditions of African descended people worldwide.

“The spectacle of 600 million Africans without electricity in an age of AI is in no way morally acceptable to us as a community, which is part of the African diaspora that is a six region of Africa…in this regard, we will further continue our work to strengthen our relationship with the African Union as a community of Caribbean people.

Mottley said that it is important for the Caribbean to seize the boundless opportunities before it, noting that the world is racing into a digital future, and the Caribbean must not be left behind.