In St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda, a CARICOM Workshop on Merchandise Trade Statistics-Training in Trade Data Dissemination System will be held from 22-24 June. The Workshop for personnel engaged in the production and dissemination of trade data is funded by the European Union (EU) under the Ninth European Development Fund (EDF) and Caribbean Integration Support Programme (CISP).

Focus will be placed on training in the use of the Trade Data Dissemination tool, COMEXT, which is a module of the New Eurotrace System. The COMEXT module enables users easy access to trade data in a searchable database format. The seminar will enable participants to install and to use the module web COMEXT which is dedicated to the dissemination, via a web interface of the datasets dedicated to dissemination.

Following the Workshop, the Eighth Meeting of the CARICOM Advisory Group on Statistics (AGS) will be held in Kingston, Jamaica, 27 June – 1 July. On behalf of the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS), this Meeting will seek to advance work on the development of statistics across the Region. Among the items on the Meeting’s agenda are a Draft Model Statistics Bill which seeks to provide an enabling legislative framework to deal with new areas of data as well as changes in the data collection environment; a Code of Ethics for Statisticians in CARICOM; and a Diagnostic Assessment Report which underpins the development/upgrading of the Regional Statistical Work Programme (RSWP).

Kingston, Jamaica, will be the venue also of the Twentieth Meeting of the Regional Census Coordination Committee (RCCC) on 4 July, and a Training Seminar on the Management of National Statistical Offices, 5-7 July.

The RCCC Meeting is aimed principally at obtaining feedback on the experiences of those countries which have undertaken their census enumeration activities during the first six months of this year. The RCCC will be provided with an update on the state of readiness of those countries that are to begin their enumeration in the remaining months of the year.

The specific focus of the Meeting is to provide support, where possible, to those countries that require immediate assistance with their enumeration activities. An inter-change of country experiences with those countries that have already conducted their enumeration in 2010 will also be facilitated. The Meeting will also discuss the progress on Census data processing and support, and plans for data analysis and dissemination of the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Censuses.

The Training Seminar on the Management of National Statistical Offices will consider matters such as Managing People in Today’s World-Applications for National Statistical Offices; Identification of Specific Needs of Heads of Statistical Offices, Lessons Learnt; and Description of Management Models, Practices and Case Studies.

CONTACT: piu@caricom,org