The Services Sector is the future of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and in order for the sector to work effectively, governments must provide the enabling environment and other incentives for its development, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda said on Wednesday.

But he noted that it was the private sector that had to do the rest “to make it happen. You therefore have to organize yourselves, particularly in the newer areas, just as our traditional Sectors have or are doing to their advantage.”

The Prime Minister, who is also the lead Head of Government with Responsibility for Services in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet, made the observation while delivering the feature address at the opening ceremony of a three-day Regional Symposium on Services at the Grand Royal Antiguan Beach Resort in St. John’s, according to a release from the CARICOM Secretariat.

The symposium is being held by the CARICOM Secretariat with support from the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), all of which were represented at the forum.

“While agriculture and manufacturing will remain important for the regional economy, for many of our Member States the Services Sector is our future. Tourism and Financial Services have been our traditional export services. But the non-traditional sub-sectors provide new opportunities for further services exports within the Region and extra-regionally. We therefore have to make the Services Sector work for us,” Spencer added.

He also called on the Private Sector to organize itself in the manner similar to the traditional sectors, and complete the process of establishing National Coalitions of Service Providers (NCSP) as soon as possible.

The NCSP is expected to provide support to their members to better position them to increase their competitiveness and enhance exports of services.

The work to harmonise domestic regulations must also be completed to give the necessary support and confidence to service providers and consumers alike, Prime Minister Spencer added.

In his remarks, Secretary-General of CARICOM, Edwin Carrington, referred to the necessity to make the Services Sector more efficient and competitive since the agriculture sector, especially sugar and bananas, had lost their preferential positions in historical markets and the Region’s manufacturing sector never fully developed into a major sector.

Noting that the reliance on services was “inescapable’, the Secretary-General further added, “the future of a competitive Caribbean regime in services and a more beneficial integration into the multilateral trading system depends on all Member States coming together to address those challenges and to design and implement a strategy for success.”

Presentations on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) by Ambassador Irwin La Rocque, Assistant Secretary-General, Trade and Economic Integration, CARICOM Secretariat; ‘Strategies for the development of the Services Sector to engage in the liberalised international economy’ by Ms. Martine Julsaint Kidane of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); `The Services Agreement under the EPA’ by Ms. Alyson Francis, Trade Counsel, Ministry of Finance and Planning, Economy and Energy, Foreign Trade and Cooperation, Grenada; and `The Role of the National Coalition in the Development of the Services Sector’ by Ms. Michelle Hustler, Project manager, Trade in Services, Barbados Coalition of Service Industries, followed the opening ceremony.

The afternoon sessions comprised panel discussions on Tourism and Transport Services, and Financial Services under the theme `Regional Challenges and Opportunities Confronting Trade and Development in Services’, the release added.