The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat presses ahead with its public education drive to ensure that vital sectors know about the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and its significant benefits. On Wednesday, November 23, a one-day CSME sensitization workshop will be hosted in San Ignacio, Belize. Approximately 40 participants from private sector entities and rural organizations will convene at the San Ignacio Resort Hotel to share information and experiences regarding the CSME. The workshop is facilitated under the 10^th European Development Fund (EDF) CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and Economic Integration Programme (EIP).

Resource persons from the CARICOM Secretariat will present on topics such as the current status of the CSME; the CSME as a platform for private sector growth and development; and facilitating agricultural trade and investment in the CSME. Belize’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade will also deliver a presentation on the CSME at the national level. The presentations will be followed by dialogue sessions in which participants can share their experiences and clarify issues surrounding the CSME. The Secretariat anticipates that at the end of the workshop, participants should have a better understanding of the benefits being a part of the CSME and how their respective sectors can take full advantage of it.

The final workshop in this series takes place in Jamaica on November 30^th in the rural parish of Manchester. Previously, the Secretariat has hosted similar private sector and rural communities CSME workshops in Barbados, Guyana, St. Vincent and Grenadines and Suriname. This series is part of a wider public education programme aimed at explaining the CSME and its advantages to CARICOM nationals. 

Between the 28th of August and the 5th of September 2015, 18 students from Grenada will gain a practical experience of the Single Market and Economy experience in Belize, as they spend the week exploring all that Belize has to offer.

Accompanying them will be the CSME Focal Point in Grenada, Mr. Ché Phillip; Mrs. Antonia Cadore-Calliste, lecturer from the T.A. Marryshow Community College in Grenada; and the CARICOM Youth Ambassador, Ms. Tahyra Noel.  The CARICOM Secretariat will be present also, in the person of Mr. Salas Hamilton, Specialist Communications; Ms. Wanya Illes, Senior Technical Officer CSME Unit and Mr. Anton Shepherd, Webmaster CSME Unit.

The objective of this mission is to engage CARICOM’s next generation in identifying career opportunities in the field, with regard to wage employment, self employment and starting a business within the CSME.  We are also seeking to build concrete linkages across the region, to solidify and strengthen the CARICOM vision within the current and next generation.

We have an exciting week ahead of us, as we directly interact with agencies, organisations and businesses to provide a working knowledge into how the Movement of Goods, Services, Capital, Persons and the Right to Establish business works in the real world, specifically in Belize.

You can also follow this event as it unfolds on Facebook and Twitter, via #csmeconvos.

 Official Press Release:   PR152015 Tertiary students from Grenada to examine the CSME in Belize

"community must take rightful place in int’l trade blocs"

The group of students from Belize are hard at work preparing for their part in the Student Missions activities which are scheduled for the week of April 13th, 2015.

Below are the Belize students engaging with various CSME front-line organisations within Belize, getting a real understanding of the benefits and deficits of their own infrastructure, before they travel to Grenada.

The CARICOM Secretariat, via the CSME Unit, is currently executing the project Students Engaging the CSME through Field Promotion.  

This project entails training youths to identify and develop responses to CSME opportunities.

The objective is to engage the next generation in identifying career possibilities with regard to wage employment, self-employment and starting a business in the CSME.  

This project was first initiated in 2008 and lasted until 2009, with the assistance of the 9^th European Development Fund (EDF) Caribbean Integration Support Programme (CISP). Some two hundred and eight three CARICOM university and college students were mobilized and trained in the field, on how to identify and develop a response to CSME opportunities.

For 2015, the objective of this project is to engage the next generation in identifying career opportunities in the field with regard to wage employment, self employment and starting a business within the CSME.   The project is an activity of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat CSME Public Education Programme facilitated with the 10^th EDF CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) Economic Integration Programme (EIP). A series of engagements will be arranged, inter alia, with the Ministries/ Departments responsible for Labour, Commerce, and Immigration and for the local issuing of CARICOM Skills Certificates. In addition, companies such as the local stock exchange, the central bank, a regional service company and a large regional financial institution will also be visited and their senior personnel engaged in discussion.

For this phase of the 2015 Student Missions, a lecturer and a CARICOM Youth Ambassador (CYA) will accompany the students in addition to the Focal Point of the sending country and CARICOM Secretariat staff. Ideally, the lecturer will be responsible for Caribbean Studies from one of the institutions the students attend, while the CYA will be chosen by the Member State.