Eastern Caribbean leaders have agreed to push ahead with plans to form their own economic union by next year and have strongly endorsed proposals seeking to get members of the public on-board with the process. The matter came up for serious consideration by leaders of the nine-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, OECS at their just-concluded meeting in Montserrat. OECS Chairman and Grenada Prime Minister Tillman Thomas expressed confidence that the sub-region's economic union would be fully in place by 2009. The Montserrat meeting also discussed plans by Trinidad and Tobago to form an economic partnership with the OECS by 2011, and, possibly, a political union by 2013. Reprinted from radioja.com