BELMOPAN, Belize, Mar 31, CMC – The director of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market (CSME), Leo Preville says sustained capacity building is key for implementation of the CSME, whose main objective is to allow for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the 15-member regional integration grouping.
Preville, addressed a planning meeting ahead of the final segment of the CARICOM Skilled Workers Programme (SWP), that gets underway here later this week.
“Sustained implementation of the CSME will depend on the availability of senior technical officers, equipped not only with the requisite knowledge of the CSME, but also an understanding of the nuanced differences in processes in member states and the development of networks among colleagues to support the integration process,” Preville said.
CARICOM border control officers from Barbados, Guyana, St. Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago are participating in a one-week attachment here until April 4.
The initiative provides opportunities to learn best-practices in the administration of the CSME regimes and develop practical skills to assist member states in implementing the CSME. The attachment here marks the final phase of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Skilled Workers Programme.
The programme, which is aimed at building advocates for CARICOM integration through the exposure given to the participants, is supported under the 11th European Development Fund’s (EDF) “Strengthening Framework for CARICOM Integration and Cooperation Process (SFCICP)”
The programme funds three border control officers from each CARICOM member state participating in the CSME.
While in Belize, the CARICOM border control officers will be exposed to the operations at the land border, air and seaports. They will observe passport control, customs inspection, agricultural checks and the collaboration among various agencies such as the Border Management Authority; Customs and Excise; Immigration and the Belize Agricultural Health Authority.
They will also monitor cargo inspection, passenger processing, the use of technology and risk management strategies.
Guyana will from April 7-11 host participants from Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, while the participants from Belize, Dominica, Haiti and Jamaica will then have an opportunity to visit another CARICOM member state, under the programme.
CMC/ag/ir/2025.