Above: Bridgetown (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

CARICOM has begun consultations on a five-year strategic plan for the regional body.

The talks began in Barbados on Wednesday, conducted by the Change Facilitation team at the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat.

The recruitment of that team came after Heads of Government in 2012 agreed that it was necessary to “re-examine the future direction of the Community.”

The five-year plan will identify “priority areas of focus” for CARICOM, which has been criticized in recent years for the relative slow speed of its integration efforts.

Earlier this year, former Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson said CARICOM needed to take “decisive steps” to prevent a “coma” for the integration system.

The pace of those efforts has come into greater scrutiny when compared to the smaller OECS sub-regional grouping, which has been finding praise for its own integration efforts.

A CARICOM statement said the consultations were intended to address the “vision, mission and core values of the Caribbean Community.”