On Monday, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister and CARICOM’s President Gaston Browne referred to the economic challenges facing the Community.

In that regard, he urged heads of Government to consider accelerating efforts towards economic diversification, especially in agriculture.

In that sense, Browne said that the potential of the region’s agricultural sector and agricultural-processing industry is limitless, and warned that no country can consider itself great if it cannot feed itself.

‘Food and nutritional security is achievable, and the nutritional element is vital in the fight against non-communicable diseases,’ he highlighted.

CARICOM’s leader also addressed tourism as a key economic activity for the Caribbean islands.

‘In our tourism-based economies, the resumption of intra-regional travel is a key element in getting economic activity back to normal,’ the prime minister noted.

Likewise, he called for the establishment and dissemination of harmonized regional health protocols for travel to create an enabling environment for air travel.

Gaston Browne took over as chairman of the Community from his Trinidad and Tobago counterpart Keith Rowley.

CARICOM recently celebrated the 48th anniversary of its founding following the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas by the leaders of several of the area’s nations.

The regional integration organization includes Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

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