(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Belize has joined seven other CARICOM Member States in establishing a Coalition of Service Providers to increase the export of services within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and provide technical and other inputs into negotiations for the trade in services.
The Coalition of service industries is an umbrella body that represents various service stakeholders including teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, tour operators and cultural artists.
It is also geared at establishing standards for the professionals and organizing the non-organised professionals into professional organizations wherever this is possible.
In launching the Belize Coalition of Services Providers (BCSP) on Wednesday, 11 March 2009, at the House of Culture, Belize City, Belize, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) His Excellency Edwin Carrington urged the entity not to “squander” the “gold mine” of opportunities within its grasp.
Acknowledging that it was no mean feat to organize the services sector, the Secretary-General nevertheless pointed to the need for the sector to remain organized, particularly in the dynamic environment in which change was the only constant.
“Notwithstanding the fact that the services sector of the Community is the largest in terms of employment, share of total output, and trade, it is characterized by fragmentation of effort and lack of a common focus to increase international competitiveness. Further, it often appears that the interests of the stakeholders are too diverse to foster its overall development. Therefore, it is indispensible that the service sector stakeholders be organized,” the Secretary-General noted.
The services sector represents more than 70 percent of the total output and employment in the Community, and given the importance of the sector, the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) had agreed that service providers should be organized into an effective group to interface with member governments in the development sector, at both the national and regional levels.
Other Coalitions of Service Providers in the CSME are Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts, Dominica and Saint Lucia. Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada are to join the fold by the end of April. By then, the Secretary-General said, the Region should be in a position to form the proposed CARICOM Coalition of Service Industries.
The launch Wednesday morning was the first in a series of important fora being held in Belize City over the next three days. Wednesday afternoon, CARICOM Heads of Government will focus on the status of the CARICOM Single Market and preparations for the Single Economy when the Fifth Prime Ministerial sub-committee meeting on the CSME convenes at the Radisson Fort George Hotel. The core members of the open-ended CSME Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee are the Heads of Government of Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
On Thursday and Friday, the Twentieth Inter-sessional Meeting of the Heads of Government will be held at the same venue. The main agenda items are the global financial and economic crisis, the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement, the status of upcoming negotiations for a CARICOM-Canada Trade and Development Agreement and the governance of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM).
