KINGSTON, Jamaica — Head of the Barbados Labour Party, Mia Mottley is calling on Caribbean territories to bond together to fix issues facing the region.

Mottley was the guest speaker at the opening night of the People’s National Party’s (PNP) 79th Annual Conference at the National Arena in St Andrew yesterday.

According to a release from the PNP today, Mottley said the region should find a way to develop a system to move people around the Caribbean cheaply, take care of health needs, pay debt, stimulate growth among youth, as well as to get information out to the public.

Motley lamented that something must be fundamentally wrong when a region cannot provide the political commitment to allow its citizens to move easily.

“It is cheaper for me to go to Miami and New York (from Barbados) than to come to Jamaica or St Kitts. It is madness,” she said.

The former attorney general pointed out that aside from travel, there is room to improve communication among the peoples of the region.

“Why is there not a real-time news network that allows me to see from Kingston to Kingstown, but I can see what goes on in Iowa and what goes on in Texas? I could see how Irma is decimating the Keys, but I really don’t know how it has decimated Tortola or BVI or St Martin.”

Mottley called on regional leaders to work as a group, which would make them stronger.

Mottley believes that some of the things that individual countries do on their own could yield better results if the creative minds in the region were pooled together.

“It is important that our people understand the journey that was traversed. We did not get here by accident. We need to understand that we are one people, divided by oceans, but we are one people,” Motley was quoted as saying.

“It is important to understand that the topics we address rise above Party considerations. Ours is a lived reality that goes beyond a party, Caribbean people trade daily,” she added.

The PNP conference continues until Sunday with private sessions on Friday and Saturday and the public session on Sunday.

Peter Phillips will address the annual conference for the first time in his capacity as party president.