The CARICOM Secretariat has launched two publications described as "must-reads" for businesspeople as well as academics and finance ministers.

The Caribbean Trade and Investment Report 2005: Corporate Integration and Cross-Border Development and Production Integration in CARICOM: Theory to Action were launched during a cocktail reception at the Savannah Hotel in Hastings, Christ Church, last Thursday evening.

The event was part of Caribbean Connect, the three-day high-level symposium on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy which took place at the Sherbourne Conference Centre, Two Mile Hill, St Michael, last week.

CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin Carrington described the texts as "must-reads" for "every single economist, investor, government trader and finance minister".

Prime Minister Owen Arthur said he was pleased to be associated with the launch of the publications, which he saw as not "one-off activities" but a signal of the "resurgence of that spirit of inquiry that often characterised and has been the benchmark of the Caribbean people's relationship to change in their region". (DS)

Cap: 3. CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin Carrington discussing the recently published Caribbean Trade and Investment Report 2005.