BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – MINISTER of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean has urged the region to increase its economic cooperation in order to mitigate the effects of the global financial and economic crisis.

According to Caribbean 360, she rendered these remarks in her address to the recent fourth annual Regional Conference on Investments and Capital Markets in Jamaica.

The Senator stressed that now, more than ever, there is need for further strengthening of economic cooperation because as the recession deepens in the major markets of the developed world the Caribbean economies will subsequently suffer.

She added that the region’s private sector should play an aggressive role in counteracting the effects of the economic crisis and warned that there was no room for complacency on the part of other economic agents.

“We have to anticipate the worst and work to realise a lesser impact. Consumers need to consume, employers need to focus on efficiencies before layoffs, employees need to boost productivity and above all, investment needs to continue.

“The way forward is to invest, produce and consume. We know that we are small, vulnerable and open economies which depend heavily on the more developed countries for foreign exchange. Although we recognise its importance, we have not taken full advantage of regional opportunities such as resources, people, commodities and markets. We have to put our national houses in order as we seek to build regionally,” McClean said.

She also highlighted the importance of leaders in industry and commerce engaging in meaningful dialogue to strategise about ways to maximise use of the region’s resources in an effort to increase consumption of goods and services while building competitiveness in the global arena.