Bridgetown.
Prime Minister of St Lucia and Chairman of CARICOM Dr Kenny Anthony, has chided Trinidad and Tobago for ignoring the concerns of the rest of the region especially in relation to air travel.
Speaking at the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry's monthly luncheon at the Barbados Hilton yesterday, Anthony said it could not be justifable that Caribbean Airline was subsidized by cheaper fuel while competing with cash strapped LIAT on inter-regional routes.
"We must look past orgin and ownership to the neccessary rationalization of regional air transport network. This can only be for the greater good, lest while we fiddle, home burns. The Caribbean is currently suffering from an abundance of tourism products and exorbitant cost….Can Caribbean governments get together and at least find a mechanism to reduce the taxes that make air travel so expensive for our people" ? he asked
Anthony said Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean are facing their greatest crisis since Independence and are in danger of becoming a group of failed states.
According to Anthony, a dysfunctional and outdated regional intergration process should shoulder much of the blame for the problem.
Anthony told the members of the Chamber of Commerce a major part of the challenge the region faced was that its institutions have not kept up with the times .
"This is a reality check that should have hit us, thanks to 2008 and the world financial crisis. We were spending too much time using our integration machinery dealing with our insularities instead of charting an outward response to the looming global realities", he added. 
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