(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Deputy Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite urged the public and private sector to work together in the services sector to maximise its potential.

Speaking recently at the Ceremony of the First Award of Excellence in Services, in Trinidad and Tobago, she emphasized the importance of synergy in exploring the vast possibilities of services because neither the private sector nor the public sector should work alone in harnessing the full potential of the sector. Ambassador Applewhaite stressed that ensuring the competitiveness of the sector was of primary importance, especially in the present global climate in which competitiveness was a “moving target.” In this environment she said, there was increasingly less room for low-skilled labour.

The Deputy Secretary-General said, “The continuing tooling and retooling of our workforce at both technical and managerial levels is an imperative for competition.” “Competitiveness in services is increasingly based on our ability to develop and incorporate the results of research into our actual service processes and marketing, but importantly, also on our attitudes towards innovation and entrepreneurship. These issues are universally important, whether we are considering financial services, tourism services, education and healthcare services, cultural services, utilities, or any other.”

She used the forum to congratulate the Awardees on winning the TTCSI Excellence in Services Awards, as well as Trinidad and Tobago Services Coalition for initiating these awards and encourage other coalitions to follow suit.

“Much has changed since 1995, the year when one hundred and sixteen members (116) of the World Trade Organisation agreed to recognise trade in services through the movement of the natural person. You have access to the world markets. This world is your world.”

She noted that services coalition had the “full support” of the CARICOM Secretariat to make them “more effective and successful.” “Let us make a difference. Let us give excellent service. Let us take our Services Sector to new frontiers, remembering the words of the leader of one of the world’s leading service economies: the race for excellence has no finish line,” the Deputy Secretary-General said.

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