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More steps underway to produce high quality statistics

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is embarking on a project to strengthen capacity to measure the contribution of international trade in services to the economies of Member States by their trading partners.

The project is to be funded by the European Union under the Tenth European Development Fund (10th EDF).

The general objective of the project is to provide the decision-makers in CARICOM with core, high quality statistics for the establishment and monitoring of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). It will be undertaken as more emphasis is being placed on the production of quality statistics in the Region. Just recently, at their 37th Regular Meeting in Georgetown, Guyana, Heads of Government of CARICOM endorsed a Plan of Action for Statistics. The Action Plan was developed by the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS) and will facilitate the bridging of data gaps in key areas of statistics such as in Trade in Services.

The Plan supports a regional approach to the development of statistics, and, among other things, will enable the upgrading of the Information and Communications Technology infrastructure and provide overall support to human resource development.

The International Trade in Services project will build on work that was already undertaken in the Region in this area. Six pilot countries are involved in the project. They are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Suriname.

The scope of the work of the project includes the piloting of a questionnaire to collect information by trading partners for the Standard Components of the Extended Balance of Payments Services Classification (EBOPS), and the application of technical assistance in pilot countries to improve the coverage and quality of the EBOPS Statistics.  Additionally, the project will facilitate the convening of a Regional Workshop to reinforce and harmonise the in-country technical assistance in order to enable the production of comparable Services Statistics across all Member States and in the sharing of best practices.

A consultant with expertise in the area of trade in services statistics has been recruited under the project for the purpose of developing and strengthening the capacity of the regional and national statistical systems, to produce and disseminate harmonised statistics on Trade in Services and Investment Flows in accordance with international and regional recommendations.

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