In Central America, business leaders have formed a Council to press for an active role in trade negotiations. This column and next week's will look at the trend for increased private sector involvement in trade policy in the Greater Caribbean.

The private sector summit, convened on March 4 by the Caribbean Development

Bank and the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce, attracted more than 100 participants. Top executives from leading Caribbean Community (CARICOM) firms were there, small businesses, industry associations and officials from regional and national public agencies. The labour movement was also represented.

Several things became evident to this observer during the one-day dialogue.

First, there is a growing sense of urgency about the need for effective responses to current challenges due to changes in world trade and technology.

Second, there is growing consensus that responses must be regional, require strategic thinking and planning, and must involve the private sector.

Third, there continues to be a "communications gap" between public and private sectors. This gap is hindering partnership and hence undermining an effective response.

And fourth, some fundamental changes in attitudes and thinking will need to happen if the region is not to be overwhelmed by the rising tide of globalisation.

Ambassador Bernal of the RNM set the tone in his keynote address when he declared "The Future is Here". The past decade has brought radical changes in technology, markets and aid flows.

CARICOM's response should be proactive, forward-looking and guided by a long-term vision of its development as a single community.

It should recognise that traditional preferences belong to the past and that historical industries that have become uncompetitive and a drain on the public purse may have to go.

It should take into account the opportunities for markets and alliances in the Greater Caribbean and beyond.

Business leaders picked up on these themes. There is concern about the perceived absence of an over-arching regional strategy. They see government policy as short-term, reactive, nationally-focused and crisis and elections-driven.

Public-private sector dialogue is hindered by a legacy of distrust and adversarial relations between the two sectors.

Businessmen need the assurance that dialogue will not be for token purposes, to be used only when the need arises and dispensed with afterwards.

There is growing impatience with the slow pace of implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy; a feeling that by the time it becomes operational it may be too late, having been overtaken by the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas). And the CSME by itself will not be enough.

Many business leaders now think beyond CARICOM to the Greater Caribbean, appreciate the need for strategic planning to complement market forces and embrace the imperative of a dynamic public-private sector partnership for regional survival and development.

These views are not necessarily in the majority in the private sector or among public officials. But they represent the elements of a possible convergence of opinion among key regional elites; the building blocks of a possible regional consensus.

The dialogue needs to be broadened to include the labour unions and the NGOs, drawing on the first Regional Economic Conference of several years ago.

The CDB and CAIC are now challenged to follow up their initiative with further meaningful policy dialogues.