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Sir Dwight Venner, Governor of the ECCB & Head of the OECS Economic Union Task Force at public launch of dialogue on OECS economic union
As many as one hundred and sixty (160) persons representing youth organisations and Village Councils in the north of Dominica are expected to assemble at the Credit Union Centre on Bay Street in Portsmouth on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 from 5.30pm for a public dialogue on OECS Economic Union as part of the process of widespread consultation across the sub-region on the Revised Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Treaty.
Prime Minister, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit, Minister for Trade, Senator the Hon. John Colin McIntrye, Parliamentary Representative for the Portsmouth Constituency, Hon. Ian Douglas and Dominica’s Ambassador to CARICOM and the OECS, His Excellency, Charles Maynard, are expected to address the participants.
Dominica launched its Public Dialogue on the Revised OECS Treaty on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 in an elaborate ceremony at the State House in Roseau. Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and Head of the OECS Economic Union Task Force, Sir Dwight Venner and Director General of the OECS, Dr. Len Ishmael were among leading figures who made presentations at the function.
In the last eleven months there have been a series of public dialogue sessions on OECS Economic Union with students at the Dominica State College, teachers at the Convent High School and Youth organisations.
The objective of the public dialogue is to gain wide support for Economic Union among the member States of the OECS.
The main objective for the creation of an Economic Union is to create a Single Economic and Financial Space comprising participating Member States and by so doing promote their greater growth and development..
The establishment of this Single Economic and Financial Space require the free movement of labour, the free circulation of goods, the right of establishment and freedom to trade in services to be guaranteed to the nationals of the participating States.
The OECS was established on 18th June, 1981 with the signing of the Treaty of Basseterre in St. Kitts. Seven countries signed the Treaty in 1981. They are: Antigua and Barbuda; Commonwealth of Dominica; Grenada, Montserrat; St. Kitts and Nevis; St. Lucia and St.Vincent and the Grenadines. The British Virgin Islands joined in 1984 and Anguilla in 1995 increasing the membership to nine countries.
Public consultations on OECS Economic Union have been launched in Dominica, Montserrat, St.. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Grenada.
