(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Services Sector is the future of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and in order for the sector to work effectively, governments must provide the enabling environment and other incentives for its development, the Hon Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda said Wednesday.

But he noted that it was the private sector that had to do the rest “to make it happen. You therefore have to organize yourselves, particularly in the newer areas, just as our traditional Sectors have or are doing to their advantage.”

Prime Minister Spencer, who is also the lead Head of Government with Responsibility for Services in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet, was at the time delivering the feature address at the Opening Ceremony of a three-day Regional Symposium on Services at the Grand Royal Antiguan Beach Resort in St. John’s.

The Symposium is being held by the CARICOM Secretariat with support from the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which were all represented at the forum.

“While agriculture and manufacturing will remain important for the regional economy, for many of our Member States the Services Sector is our future. Tourism and Financial Services have been our traditional export services. But the non-traditional sub-sectors provide new opportunities for further services exports within the Region and extra-regionally. We therefore have to make the Services Sector work for us,” Prime Minister Spencer said.

Prime Minister Spencer also called on the Private Sector to organize itself in the manner similar to the traditional sectors, and complete the process of establishing National Coalitions of Service Providers as soon as possible. National Services Coalitions will provide support to their members to better position them to increase their competitiveness and enhance exports of services.

The work to harmonise domestic regulations must also be completed to give the necessary support and confidence to service providers and consumers alike, he said.

His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM, referred to the necessity to make the Services Sector more efficient and competitive since the agriculture sector, especially sugar and bananas, had lost their preferential positions in historical markets and the Region’s manufacturing sector never fully developed into a major sector.

The reliance on services was “inescapable", the Secretary-General said. “The future of a competitive Caribbean regime in services and a more beneficial integration into the multilateral trading system depends on all Member States coming together to address those challenges and to design and implement a strategy for success,” the Secretary-General said.

Following the opening ceremony, there were presentations on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) by His Excellency Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, Assistant Secretary-General, Trade and Economic Integration, CARICOM Secretariat; ‘Strategies for the development of the Services Sector to engage in the liberalised international economy’ by Ms. Martine Julsaint Kidane of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); `The Services Agreement under the EPA’ by Ms. Alyson Francis, Trade Counsel, Ministry of Finance and Planning, Economy and Energy, Foreign Trade and Cooperation, Grenada; and `The Role of the National Coalition in the Development of the Services Sector’ by Ms. Michelle Hustler, Project manager, Trade in Services, Barbados Coalition of Service Industries.

The afternoon sessions comprised panel discussions on Tourism and Transport Services, and Financial Services under the theme `Regional Challenges and Opportunities Confronting Trade and Development in Services’.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org