The latest from the Caribbean Community
The CARICOM Secretariat and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) are collaborating to host the first regional workshop aimed at strengthening national capacity to support the 2030 Human Resource Development Strategy (2030 HRDS).
The workshop targets National Coordinators responsible for the coordination, monitoring and reporting associated with the implementation of the Strategy at the national level. It will be held at the Courtyard Marriott in Barbados, May 22-24, 2018. (more…)
The Ministers are in Georgetown for the two-day Forty-Sixth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) which opened on Wednesday at the CARICOM Secretariat. The CSME is one of the main agenda items of the Meeting.
Speaking at the opening session, both Chair of the Meeting, the Hon Chet Greene, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Immigration of Antigua and Barbuda, and Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, CARICOM Secretary-General, placed emphasis on the CSME and wanted swifter action on its implementation.
“…Article 15 section 2 (b) confers on this Council the responsibility to, “promote the development and oversee the operations of the CSME”. As a region we are not where we want to be with the implementation of the CSME, and as we consider the sub items on the agenda we must do so in a manner to report and achieve progress going forward. Certainly, the confidence of our people and our businesses within the integration process must not be shattered”, Minister Greene said.
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The rapidly changing trading environment demands that the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) find an “appropriate mix of methodologies and strategies” to address the Council’s expanding agenda.
This is according to the Hon. Chet Greene, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Immigration of Antigua and Barbuda, who is chairing the Forty-Sixth Meeting of the COTED.
In remarks at the opening session of the Meeting at the CARICOM Secretariat on Wednesday 16 May, 2018, the Minister referred to both internal and external trade matters that could impact the Community’s progress towards sustained economic prosperity. These include the implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), market access for products, the review of the Common External Tariff (CET), the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the future of trade with the United Kingdom after BREXIT and the impasse between the USA and China. (more…)
CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, said matters under consideration at the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) presented an opportunity to provide solutions that would advance the regional integration movement.
He was speaking on Wednesday morning at the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana, during the opening session of the Forty-Sixth Meeting of the COTED.
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Just under a million less tourists visited the Caribbean following hurricanes Irma and Maria last year, costing the region over $700 million, according to a report from the London-based World Travel & Tourism Council.
“The hurricane season resulted in an estimated (loss) in 2017 of 826,100 visitors to the Caribbean, compared to pre-hurricane forecasts,” said the report.
Those tourists could have spent US$741 million and sustained more than 11,000 jobs, it said.
With their turquoise waters and coral reefs, Caribbean island destinations rely heavily on tourism, which provides 15.2 per cent of the region’s gross domestic product and sustains 14 per cent of its labor force, according to the report.
Worldwide, the average contribution of tourism to GDP is 10.4 per cent.
Read more at: Jamaica Observer