by RICKEY SINGH

THE CURTAINS will be drawn this evening on the 28th CARICOM Summit that got under way in Barbados on Sunday with the clear promise to vigorously make functional co-operationa more people-focused development of the 34-year-old community.

The extent to which the leaders may have succeeded in achieving this position over three days of plenary and caucus sessions, should be known today at a closing media briefing and the conference communiqué.

One thing seems evident: If the promise to make functional co-operation – the so-called second pillar of the region's integration movement – falls victim to lack of a shared vision and commitment at this year's summitry politics, then expect cynicism and frustration, if not despair to rise.

Until last February's inter-sessional meeting of Caricom leaders in St Vincent and the Grenadines, when they added security as a fourth pillar, the three so-called primary pillars of regional integration have been: trade and economic development, functional co-operation, and foreign policy.

For a working definition on what functional co-operation is all about, a relevant quote comes from the author of the path-finding report on Towards A Single Economy And A Single Development Vision, Professor Norman Girvan, one of the region's highly respected economist and thinker:

"Functional co-operation, the second pillar of our integration movement," he said, "is quite important . . . . It is not necessarily based on legal instruments or on the operation of market mechanisms. It is essentially a process of sharing services and undertaking joint activities in order to reduce costs and achieve synergies . . ."

Kinds of functional co-operation identified by Girvan in his report, endorsement of which is a major expectation of the summit, includes health, human resources development, security, communication, foreign trade policies, research and development.

Girvan and colleagues from the Caricom Secretariat and Special Task Force on the Single Economy, who produced the single vision for a development report, are encouraged by the open call for unanimous endorsement that has come from Prime Minister Owen Arthur.