Govt, Caricom to help service sector

IN ORDER to better assist the recovery of regional service industries during the pandemic, the Ministry of Trade and Industry will partner with Caricom to develop a strategy for the recovery of the service sector, according to acting permanent secretary Ayleen Alleyne-Ovid.

Alleyne-Ovid made the announcement on Wednesdau during her feature address at the virtual release of the National Services Exporters Survey results.

The results of the survey offered a glance of the state of the local service sector including strengths, weaknesses and potential opportunities for improvement. She said as several aspects of the service industry have been severly affected by the covid19 pandemic, the government through her ministry would work towards formulating a recovery strategy for all stakeholders.

“After first determining the economic impact of the pandemic on the regional services sector, the strategy will identify and recommend a plan of action for recovery and growth.

“This would include strengthening governance arrangements at the national and regional level; enhancing sub-sectoral targeting; and providing more targeted stimuli to aid in recovery efforts.

“We have already approached Caricom to consider what can be done, to fully utilise the market access commitments already in place under an existing trade agreement, which includes the possibility of concluding a services agreement with one of our existing trade partners.”

The virtual release also served as the launch of the National Services Exporters registry, a digital resource which serves as a database for information relating to various aspects of the local service sector from education, tourism and information and communications technology (ICT).

Alleyne-Ovid said she was confident the release of this data would be the first step towards the growth of the service sector as it would shape the policy and decisions to develop local industry.