“By 2024 Caribbean would back to where it was pre COVID era,” Irwin LaRocque

Dominica: Prime Minister of Dominica, Dr Roosevelt Skerrit on Sunday’s Annou Palay had a discussion with special guest Secretary General of CARICOM Irwin LaRocque, who is a national of Dominica and has severed on the position of Permanent Secretary in various Ministries of the government for over 14 years. 

PM Skerrit and LaRocque discussed the response of CARICOM in the amidst of COVID-19 in the region. Secretary-General stated that CARICOM has done fairly well, “It’s not just from my perspective, It's from the perspective of others who have watched on. In terms of how we have treated with the health aspect of it, of course, there is an economic aspect which I am sure will get to from or health aspect when you look at the figures and you compare a capital with other regions and other countries and given the fact that we were behind, we didn't have the resources to do all that we wanted to do, but I think we have done fairly well in a response to COVID-19.”

Importantly, LaRocque stated that to bounce back from the economic impact of COVID-19, CARICOM countries will face quite a challenge. “First and foremost the international financial institutions the IMF in particular and others have said that a region is the most affected region economically in the world given the fact that we are so heavily dependent on tourism we have seen our tourism industry model has decimated over the period of last year. Now we have seen revenues declined in member states as much as 50% while expenditures went up. We have seen last year impact on GDP of almost 20% among many of our member states the average being 15% for the region the only country who did not suffer was Guyana because of the oil reserves that they have.”

“Some analysis suggests that by 2024 if we put in place and able to vaccinate the population accordingly, Caribbean would be back to where it was pre COVID era,” he added.