Caricom has come under heavy criticism by business and tourism leaders in the region for not having an economic plan or sense of direction, according to reports in the Caribbean press yesterday.

Gary Voss, the president of the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce, said the region was "drifting aimlessly," reported yesterday's Jamaica Gleaner newspaper.

"The Caribbean as a whole does not have a strategic plan and does not know where it wants to be in the year 2010 and beyond," he said.

Government wants Bermuda, which has observer status in Caricom, to become an associate member, but it will not take part in the single market or currency and will not sign up to a free movement of labour within the region.

Mr. Voss, speaking at a two day European and Latin Finance Caribbean Investment Forum in Montego Bay, Jamaica, added: "It (Caricom) is negotiating arrangements, but it is not quite sure what arrangements it needs because it doesn't know where it is going. It is a rather damning statement to make, but I think it is true."

Aleem Mohammed, chairman of the Tourism and Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago, is quoted as saying: "When you look at the European Union, you see countries which have been at war and countries of different cultures and languages coming together and have a single currency.

"Yet we, as 13 member states in the Caribbean, cannot even get our act together in a single market and economy.

"We must move forward from being myopic and being small island mentality and understand that the world is not going to give us handouts and the world does not owe us anything.

"Unless we define the market space for ourselves, we are going to be lost in the new global village."

Transport Minister Dr Ewart Brown, who is on Government's committee set up to investigate the merits of joining Caricom, is chairing a public meeting on the subject at St Paul's AME Church, Hamilton, at 7.30 p.m. tonight.