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The call for regional decisive action came from Lawrence Placide, president of the Trinidad & Tobago Coalition of Services Industries, while addressing a Caricom services sector symposium currently being held in Antigua.

"The private sector is becoming increasingly disenchanted with the pace of CSME implementation," Placide said, while noting that despite the introduction of skills certificates, entrepreneurs still find it easier to enter a territory to provide services under the guise of vacation.

"It has been several years since Caricom began to implement the free movement of persons, yet business persons continue to bitterly complain that entry into other Caricom countries is still at the whim and fancy of immigration officers," he said.

He went on to outline the difficulties faced by services providers with the transfer of their equipment and immediate family when going to provide services in another Caricom member state.

Placide called on the participants to ensure that they leave the symposium with a "time-bound" action plan, which would be of benefit to service providers over the next four years.

He also stressed the need for stakeholders to remember that the most valuable asset of services providers is their intellectual property.

"This is a critical issue particularly for the small and medium-sized enterprises among us. Unless it is addressed, despite positive strides made in policy, the services sector would never reach its full potential due to the lack of commercial opportunity."

Representatives and technocrats from the regional services sector are meeting in Antigua with the intent of putting together a strategic plan of action for the services sector for the period 2009 to 2014.

This plan is to be presented to Antiguan Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, Lead Head of Government with Responsibility for Services, on Friday, which is when the symposium wraps up

Source: Jamaica Observer, July 18, 2009
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