Coalition of Service Industries discussed at National Consultative Workshop

By VonDez Phipps
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

Mr. Timothy Odle, Deputy Programme Manager, Services, CARICOM Secretariat

The Workshop, which was organised by the Ministry of International Trade in collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat, was held at the Ocean Terrace Inn.

Timothy Odle, Deputy Programmes Manager from the CARICOM Secretariat, addressed the forum and explained the best path to be taken toward an effective and efficient coalition. He acknowledged that the implementation of such a coalition would have to address problems including the movement of professionals and the right to establish a business anywhere in CARICOM and explained the possible benefits from this effort.

“Coalition expands the horizon from just being within St. Kitts as it would expand our portfolio. We are hoping that we can reach a consensus as to the best way forward in establishing the CSI in St. Kitts,” he said. “Businesses are expanding and no one should be excluded.”

Minister of Finance, International Trade, Industry, Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris also gave a featured address during the opening session. He stated that the coalition is part and parcel of an integrative arrangement attempting to create a more fluent interaction among CARICOM member states.

He said the initiative should “put to the mutual benefit the collective resources from across the Caribbean”.

Dr. Harris initially outlined the main objectives of the CSI, which are: to prepare stakeholders for challenges and opposition of the services regime of the CSME; to promote export particularly in the areas that would set the region at an advantage and would show long-lived benefits; to be a partner with the public and private sectors and; to soften the impact of competition on businesses in the region, the smaller ones in particular.

Harris focussed on three major necessities for the region to incorporate in order to maximise the benefits from the coalition. The first, he explained, is that the region must be willing to allow people to move throughout the jurisdictions without hindrance.  Secondly, to ensure that there is some commonality among the service providers within the relative jurisdictions and, lastly, to provide a working knowledge of who the service providers are within each jurisdiction.

“We have to be better organised nationally, because we have to deal with the reality. We can continue to talk about them and whine around them but our resistance would be to no avail. We have to learn to identify our national interest...and so networking among groups becomes critically important to bring intellectual solidarity.”

He further explained that the small size of the service sector makes the Federation almost insignificant in the international commerce arena and that coalition thus becomes a necessity.

The services sector is the largest within the economy, accounting for more than half of the GDP and national employment. It has undergone rapid growth and has incorporated a diverse range of services, and so, in an effort to facilitate its development, the CSI has held the support of the local government.

The Treaty of Chaguaramas (1973) agrees to a CSI which should neither be government-owned nor politically-affiliated, but rather should be governed as an independent organisation having its own board of directors and clear mission and goals solely to develop the service sector within the country.

The CSI has already been accepted by Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago and the CARICOM member states have agreed to the formation of CSI throughout the entire region. ~~Adz:Right~~

Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris, Minister of Finance, International Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs