BELIZE CITY, Belize-WORKERS in service industries are expected to be afforded more opportunities to practice their trades when CARICOM nears completion on its Coalition of Service Industries sometime next month.

This proclamation was made Wednesday (Mar. 11) following the establishment of Belize as the eighth CARICOM nation to enact a Coalition of Service Providers.

A release from the CARICOM Secretariat stated that as each nation establishes a Coalition of Service Providers the region would be able 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”.

Because the services sector, which includes everything from tourism to medical professionals, comprises over 70% of the employment opportunities within CARICOM, Secretary General His Excellency Edwin Carrington urged Belize and other CARICOM nations not to “squander the gold mine” of opportunities a Coalition of Service Industries would present.

“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,” he said.

While Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts, Dominica and Saint Lucia have already established Coalitions of Service Providers, Carrington said that similar programmes being established in Antigua-Barbuda and Grenada by April would give CARICOM the leverage it needs to establish a regional system for service workers.

The Coalition of Service Industries is only one of the initiatives scheduled to be discussed at this week’s Fifth Meeting of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on the CSME in Belize City.

Other items on the agenda include 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.