CASTRIES \u2013 Grenada\u2019s Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell has called on Caribbean countries to make sincere efforts to encourage easier intra-regional travel and do away with the heavy taxes that discourage free movement of the region\u2019s population.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to have more transport, sea and air transport. But if we have it and it is too costly, we still don\u2019t have it,\u201d Mitchell told the 40th annual convention of the ruling United Workers Party (UWP) in Vieux-Fort, south of here over the last weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if Grenada has a pile of taxes on a ticket, St Lucia has a pile, Barbados has a pile, St Vincent has a pile, Trinidad and Tobago has a pile and making the ticket too costly for travel then we must drop taxes and let our people travel,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not talking about dropping all of it, we are talking dropping (it) sufficiently to make the ticket easier for people to travel,\u201d Mitchell said, supporting the idea by Prime Minister Allen Chastanet for a regional civil aviation authority.<\/p>\n
Mitchell\u2019s request comes less than a week after Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders met in Trinidad and Tobago to examine ways of improving the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and skills across the majority of the 15-member grouping.<\/p>\n
The regional leaders have since agreed on a timetable to ensure that certain measures are put in place to facilitate the deepening of the regional integration movement through the CSME.<\/p>\n
Mitchell told the UWP convention that there was a need to make \u201cthe Caribbean great again\u201d even as he urged the region to build synergies and improve relations with global partners to enhance economic prosperity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world must be made up of countries that understand philologically their own ideology and work together to improve the lives of the people of their own country.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I don\u2019t subscribe to this philosophy of just make Grenada great again. Grenada can only be great, if St Lucia is also great again. So all the countries in the region we must all strive to make sure we all become great again or all remain great again,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
The Grenada Prime Minister also called for greater unity in improving security across the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo something happen in St Lucia, we should know in Grenada overnight. Something happen in Trinidad, we should know. Recently a gentleman shot two people in Trinidad and he ran to Grenada. Now if we did not have a very good system of checks that man could have been roaming in Grenada without anybody knowing,\u201d Mitchell said, adding that the man was caught \u201cwithin six days\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I am saying therefore is that should happen in every single country. There should be no escape for criminals destabilising our society. Our children must grow up in a country of peace and stability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Prime Minister Chastanet, who was re-elected leader of the party, urged supporters to defend the government in the face of criticism from the opposition as it builds \u201can impressive track record\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said that the opposition had been critical of the economic policies of the government that are now bearing fruit<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to the House (of assembly) on Tuesday and I hope many of you come and support us in which we are going to be borrowing US$150 million from the Taiwanese,\u201d he said in order to pay for various development projects on the island.<\/p>\n
He also promised to deal with the crime situation here. He said CCTV cameras will be installed in the northern section of the island later this month and the new telecommunication system for the police will also be in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I want to put the criminals on notice that their days are numbered. St Lucians are fed up and we will take it no more,\u201d he told supporters.\u00a0(CMC)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CASTRIES \u2013 Grenada\u2019s Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell has called on Caribbean countries to make sincere efforts to encourage easier intra-regional travel and do away with the heavy taxes that discourage free movement of the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-regional-news"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"adminrfm","author_link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/author\/adminrfm\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Regional News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"CASTRIES \u2013 Grenada\u2019s Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell has called on Caribbean countries to make sincere efforts to encourage easier intra-regional travel and do away with the heavy taxes that discourage free movement of the [...]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2541,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions\/2541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}