Mia Amor Mottley Good morning, ma’am.

Thank you, ma’am, for delivering my speech because you said, in essence, Prime Minister of Grenada, my brother, the right Honorable Dr Keith Mitchell, Secretary General of CARICOM Dr. Colin Barnett, president of CTU, the Honorable Melford Nicholas and officials representing Digicel and cable and wireless.

Other ministers invited guests and of course, members of the media who are carrying this story to our brothers and sisters across the Caribbean.

Data and information really have become the new oil, and it drives the new economy.

We are resolved that we cannot build a modern Caribbean economy.

We cannot forge a single market and economic space.

We cannot develop upon Caribbean market and digital services across education, culture, business, trade and finance.

If there are serious goals between our nations, we are already separated by the ocean.

We are trying separately to be able to deal with that through the building of air and sea bridges.

But data bridges are absolutely critical and more so as a result of the pandemic.

We’ve just come through, we know that we need to be able to keep connectivity going.

Information, data and information and digital connectivity must be available.

Must be cheap, must be fast.

It is against that backdrop that we’ve reached a point where much of what we’ve been calling for with respect to a single domestic space can in fact be met.

This calls from me has come over the course of the last 15 years, in particular since we had our experience with Cricket World Cup and believe you me.

In recent times, I was heartened when CARICOM and in particular the CARICOM Commission on the Economy, reported that in order to have greater efficiency within a single market space, that we needed to create that single information and data space in our community and within that space.

Our goal really is the elimination of roaming charges, plain and simple. In Europe, we’ve done it. And reality is our citizens would like to roam as if they were home because they are at home in the Caribbean community.

This is our single domestic space.

But as you heard from others, we’re not quite there yet.

And very often in our lives, sometimes we take steps that lead to the final destination.

Some are small, some are large.

This is a large step, but we’re still short of our destination to eliminate roaming completely.

So that we today recognize, as do the telecoms providers, the heads of government, that this is a journey, and from today, my friends, there really can be no turning back.

We accept that the first stage of that journey is the commitment signed here by the telecoms providers offering new roaming arrangements where the charges are substantially lower and more importantly, capped at reasonable levels that our monthly commitments that Moscow global citizens can easily adequately afford.

May I remind us, that even though we started we started the discussions in 2021.

I want to thank those who had the preliminary discussions with the telecoms providers as well.

Professor Prasad and others in the small team sets that two years ago at the intersection in February 2020, we heralded the possibility for this moment.

Then came COVID, literally within a matter of weeks.

The fact that the process was restarted last year and that we have reached this point with the help of Rodney and Selby, we want to see very much a large thank you as well as to those providers who have come to the table in good faith to allow us to be here today.

I must say that they have shown a considerable commitment and desire to supporting us in creating this single ICT space.

But as we said, this is just the first step.

The negotiations have been told, and I’ve heard this morning from the persons who have spoken have been respectful and indeed you have shown yourselves to be good Caribbean corporate citizens.

Let me digress a second, because I want to respond and to say that yes, we have had initial discussions with the chairman of Digicel on the issue of reparations.

I do expect to be making major statements on reparations within the next two weeks and therefore we will not further address them in this context but suffice it to say that we in the Caribbean are acutely aware of the development deficit that was left us at the point of independence and recognize that many of the things that we have wanted to do as post-independence territories.

In our post-independence era rather, have been compromised by the lack of capacity and the lack of resources, which comes from the fact that our country’s served to be able to supply revenue and wealth to others, while at the same time extricated from ourselves the capacity to support ourselves in the most basic needs.

So we thank Digicel for joining Caribbean governments in this battle for the issue of reparations and the closing of the development deficit that was left us at the point of independence as a result of slavery and the exploitation thereto.

As I said earlier, I wanted to thank the CTU negotiating team in particular under the chairmanship of Selby Wilson.

Selby you continue to work in the vinegaurd of Caribbean development and we thank you for that commitment.

Professor Persaud, this is a seamless transition from your recommendations as chairman of the CARICOM Economic Commission and also, as I said, for your early work in the early negotiations to cap the roaming charges, we thank you for that.

Rodney, we miss you in Barbados, but we thank you nevertheless for the work that you continue to do day to day on behalf of the people of the region in Situ.

My friends, we want to allow for competition on rates and services to the benefit of the wide variety of users of voice and data services.

So we are not prescribing one way in which costs will fall and be capped.

Today we sign a commitment that you, our people, will see new roaming packages for citizens of our CARICOM countries over the coming days and coming weeks.

We want our citizens to feel it where it matters in their pockets. We will closely monitor adherence to the commitments made today and follow through.

We encourage consumer groups to do so as well, and we are of course prepared to take whatever action necessary to ensure that from today, our citizens can enjoy broader services and lower and more predictable and kept costs as we move towards that coveted single space and indeed my great dream the elimination of roaming charges for US citizens in the Caribbean community.

So, Keith Prime Minister Mitchell today is a historic moment for both regional connectivity. Telecoms and CARICOM.

CARICOM has negotiated with a local, regional and international industry as one.

In the explicit pursuit of a single market and space, I must commend therefore the coming together of the industry, the governments and our people as one Caribbean to make this first stride along this vital journey.

But I could not end here, without thanking and commending my brother, Prime Minister Mitchell, whose leadership on this matter has been strong, has been exemplary and indeed who recognizes that the future of our region truly depends on us unlocking this difficult issue.

We must move on to the next step now, Prime Minister Mitchell of creating that single regulatory space and ensuring that the costs borne by our citizens for the respect of telecom services relate to the costs incurred by the telecoms providers, and not simply to have deemed rates of return that are way outside of the pockets of our citizens.

If we can do this, then we will add significantly to the competitiveness of the region and it becomes even all the more critical given the likely increase in prices of fossil fuels that we will face as a result of the geopolitical tensions in the world.

We hope and pray that they will find it possible to bring about a diplomatic solution because the last thing our people across the world need know, is war.

I therefore hope Keith Prime Minister Mitchell, that we can have the conclusion of the framework within the next 12 to 18 months that will allow for the single regulatory space for the two major telecoms providers in our region.

And we hope that they can work with us recognizing that a prosperous Caribbean means a prosperous Digicel and a prosperous cable and wireless.

Thank you very much.