Martinique first French country to join OECS

Caribbean news. OECS Commission, Castries, Saint Lucia –The history of the OECS took a new turn on Wednesday February 4^th 2015 when the French Territory of Martinique signed accession papers to Associate Membership within the OECS, increasing the Nine Member Grouping to ten.

The historic signing of Martinique as an Associate Member of the OECS took place at the Hotel La Bateliere in Schoelcher, Martinique during the opening ceremony of the 60^th Meeting of the OECS Authority.

The agenda for the 60^th Meeting of the OECS Authority included an update on the implementation of the OECS Economic Union, the Free Circulation of Goods, and issues on Sports and Healthy lifestyles. Martinique’s membership of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States followed a period of negotiations after the Regional Council of Martinique submitted a formal application for associate membership in the OECS with the full support/endorsement of the French Government.

Chairman of the OECS, PM Skerrit raises the hand of Martinique’s President Serge Letchimy after official signing. Photo courtesy dominicanewsonline.com

In November of 2014, Dr. Jules addressed the Regional Assembly in Martinique after which the Assembly unanimously voted in favour of Martinique’s membership of the OECS.  Since then the OECS Commission has been treating Martinique effectively as an Associate Member and the French Region has already been attending regional meetings on matters such as Health.

The OECS Director General describes the event on February 4^th 2015 in Schoelcher as a very historical moment: “The involvement of Martinique in the OECS, while there are limitations because of their status in relation to France, opens up great potential and certainly widens the demographics from an economic perspective. We have seen the relationship grow between Martinique and Saint Lucia and between Guadeloupe and Dominica for example. What that does now is widen this to the whole OECS. The use of Martinique as a tertiary health facility centre for the OECS is something under discussion so there are a lot of opportunities. We are very concerned about not just ensuring growth in the economies of the OECS but growth with equity. It’s not enough to just grow the economy if you are growing it and only the existing players benefit, it has to be the type of growth that leads to a widening of opportunity for smaller persons. There is a trickle-down effect and a spread of the benefits through community tourism which we think will do particularly well with the engagement of Martinique and Guadeloupe.  So we are expecting that this will yield great benefits in terms of weekend travel, bed and breakfast arrangements, community sporting activities, and so on.”

The 60^th OECS Authority was also updated on the Work Programme for the OECS Commission. Article courtesy http://www.oecs.org