Above: St Vincent Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves and Guyana President Donald Ramotar

By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves headed to Guyana to visit CARICOM and for bilateral talks with Guyana President Donald Ramotar.

Gonsalves first met with Ramotar on Monday, then visited the CARICOM Secretariat, where he held discussions with CARICOM Secretary General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and members of the secretariat’s Executive Management Committee.

The St Vincent and the Grenadines leader, who holds the Transport portoflio in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet, told officials at the regional body to “keep the faith” on the integration front.

“Sometimes it might look as if we are marking time, but we have been making some good progress in some areas and we have more to do and I want to thank you for soldiering on and working together and I hope in the new year we can redouble our efforts,” he said.

St Vincent and the Grenadines will assume the CARICOM Chairmanship in January, and the PM said he had identified a “bundle of issues” he would focus on during his term as Chairman.

Those include “trade among CARICOM Member States and with external partners, job creation, transportation, economy, free movement and hassle free travel, governance and climate change mitigation,” according to a CARICOM statement.