The first month of the new year has brought unmistakable evidence that last year’s global recession, the worst in more than seven decades, is now firmly behind us.

And with member territories of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) so heavily dependent on tourism and, to a lesser extent, foreign direct investment, there can be no better news.

Contributing to the optimistic outlook was President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Compton Bourne who last Thursday expressed confidence that regional countries will overcome future economic challenges.

"I think that we are swimming in difficult waters…we have not simply stayed afloat, we’re managing as well as can be expected. I don’t think that the regional economies are in a great danger of not surviving," Bourne told journalists during a review of the CDB’s activities for the past year. With Caribbean countries experiencing fall-offs in revenue from tourism, construction, foreign direct investment and remittances,CDB disbursed close to US$209 million to member countries last year, with the less developed countries, including Haiti, receiving US$111 million and US$83 million being provided to the more developed countries. The additional US$14 million was disbursed to regional entities.

The main beneficiaries of the bank’s policy-based loans under an arrangement introduced in 2007 were Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines. In all, US$68 million was provided to those countries, with Haiti being given a grant of US$10 million.

But by far the best medicine for the economies of the sub-region and indeed the wider Caricom, is the strengthening global economy and the consequential fuelling of the kind of economic recovery and growth in these islands of which we have been deprived for the past couple of years.

The effects of the worldwide economic resurgence will take a while, some say as many as 12 to 18 months, to filter through to our local economies. But we hope there’s recognition of the fact that it is those jurisdictions and players that act most quickly and with the most confidence, which will derive the maximum and most rapid benefit from the international turnaround.

This is not a time for economic recalcitrance or vacillation! A booming global economy will certainly provide a spur to tourism marketing and investment opportunities for the nimble and creative. And one need only look at the latest indices to come to the incontrovertible conclusion that surging times are on the way worldwide.

The US economy grew for a second straight quarter from October through December, posting a 5.7 per cent annual rate – the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2003. The two straight quarters of growth last year followed a record four quarters of economic decline.

China’s recovery from the global financial crisis has been even more rapid with its economy growing in the last quarter of 2009 at a 10.9 per cent lick. China has now overtaken Germany to become the world’s largest exporter of manufactured goods, and is predicted to soon overtake Japan for the world’s second largest economy.

The UK, a primary market for tourists to these islands, has also come out of recession, with figures showing its economy grew by an admittedly weaker-than-expected 0.1 per cent in the last three months of 2009.

The UK economy had previously contracted for six consecutive quarters – the longest period since quarterly figures were first recorded in 1955. Among other UK recovery signs; last week’s unemployment fell for the first time in 18 months.

The UK had been the last major economy still in recession. Europe’s two biggest economies – Germany and France – came out of recession last summer, and Japan also emerged from recession last year. So it’s up to us to recognise the "green shoots" and position ourselves to benefit from the more fertile circumstances now emerging.