The OECS is considering an economic union

OECS heads of government have said they want to engage all the citizens of the sub-region in a comprehensive dialogue on the way forward in the integration process.

This previously scheduled undertaking comes at a time of a debate, mainly among some OECS government and opposition leaders, over whether the sub regional grouping should be expanded to include Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

That came out of a suggestion by Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Patrick Manning for a southern Caribbean bloc of his country, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and St Lucia.

The OECS was established in 1981 over the past 27 years has evolved to include a range of areas of 'functional cooperation.'

Already the organisation's member states share a single currency -the East Caribbean dollar ($US1.00 = $EC2.65) - a central bank and supreme court.

Other joint undertakings include telecommunications and civil aviation, education, health, sports, agriculture, export development and the environment.

	PM Baldwin Spencer says they want to build on the successes of the OECS

OECS leaders, who have already committed to exploring the idea of an economic union, say it would mark a significant advancement of the sub region's integration process.

Now they are taking the idea to the people of the sub region.

So will they be peddling their ideas, or hoping to glean some visionary input from the people of the OECS?

That’s one of the questions BBC Caribbean’s Ken Richards put to Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of Antigua.

Listen to Ken Richards' interview with PM Spencer.