slcsi enewsletter focus on services february 2012

ISSUE 2 2012 VOL 2

Focus on Services

Since its launch in 2009, the SLCSI has advocated for the establish of a framework to support the development of a National Services Policy for Saint Lucia. During the month of February, the SLCSI took concrete steps to move forward on this advocacy agenda. The SLCSI in collabora-tion with the Ministry of Commerce, Busi-ness Development, Investment and Con-sumer Affairs hosted a series of consulta-tions with Public officials and private sector representatives to discuss their views on the challenges facing the services sector and what is most needed to address those challenges.

The targeted sectors were the Profession-als services sector (including Accounting, Information Communication Technology, Engineering, Architecture and Management consulting. These sectors were selected based on the 2004 Draft National Export Development Strategy which identifies the key export priorities for Saint Lucia. The consultations were facilitated by Ser-vices Trade Specialist, Mr. Ramesh Chai-too, former head of the Services Unit of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (now known as the Office of Trade Negotia-tions and Lead Services Negotiator for the CARIFORUM EU Economic Partnership Agreement.

During the consultations, Mr. Chaitoo pre-sented a detailed analysis of Saint Lucia’s

economy and the benefits of a Services Policy based on country examples across the world. Mr. Chaitoo highlighted that based on the sector contributions to Gross Domestic product, Saint Lucia was no longer and agricultural based but rather a Service based economy. Mr. Chaitoo fur-ther pointed out that the youth (ages 15 – 35) which accounted for forty one percent (41%) of the population was the hardest hit by tough economic times, with unemployment standing at just over twenty percent (20%). Contin-ued on page 2

Inside this issue:

SLCSI Pushes for a Comprehensive Services Policy

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Events Diary 1

Opportunities for Developing Saint Lucia’s Cultural Industry

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SLCSI Leads the way on Services Sector Survey

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Caribbean Marketplace Opportunities 3

Business Opportunities 3

Networking Tips: Part Three 4

SLCSI Takes First Steps in Pushing for a Comprehensive Services Policy

FOCUS ON SERVICES IS THE OFFICIAL ENEWSLETTER OF THE SAINT LUCIA COALITION OF SERVICES INDUSTRIES

7-9 March: 2nd International Conference on Governance for Sustainable Development of Caribbean Small Islands, Curacao 7-11 March: CaFa 2012: Second Annual Caribbean Fine Art Fair, Barbados 8-9 March: Intersessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government, Suriname 19-20 March: Meeting of Caribbean Network of Services Coalitions, Dominican Republic 15 March –15th April: SLCSI Sector Survey, Saint Lucia 26-30 March : Meeting of the Council on Trade and Economic Development (COTED)

Mr. Ramesh Chaitoo(standing) makes a presenta-tion to a meeting of Public Officials on The Impor-tance of Developing a National Services Policy

Mr. Chaitoo meets with member of the Hair, Beauty and Spa Association

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Focus on As the very nature of the services sector increased the potential for self employment, both public and private sector representatives agreed that the development of the sector was crucial for creating jobs particularly amongst the youth. The following issues common to all sectors were identified:

• the need to achieve greater synergies between the public and private sector.; • the urgency of reviewing the national training priority to reflect the skills gap in the Services Sector; • improvement of the business climate for trade in services through domestic regulations; • provision of incentives to stimulate interest in services particularly amongst the youth; • enactment of necessary legislation where required to regulate the sector.

The consultations underscored that a significant commitment by the Government would be necessary to allocate the necessary human and financial resources to develop a comprehensive National Services Policy and implement a cohesive strategy to synchronize the work across government agencies and ministries to remove existing impediments to trade in services. Presentations made at the meetings are available on the SLCSI website www.slcsi.org.lc .


SLCSI Takes First Steps in Pushing for a Comprehensive Services Policy1Cont’d from Page 1

For Saint Lucia, like the rest of the world, the drive to support and sustain the Cultural Industries goes beyond the technicalities of trade. It is a tool to present to the world a strong vision and identity of Saint Lucia and gives form and voice to the values that de-fine Saint Lucians as a people. In that regard, in the words of Canada In-ternational Business strategy “whereas it is preferable to be primarily a producer and exporter, rather than net importer in other sectors of the economy, it is absolutely indispensable in the cultural industries. To be simply a consumer of someone else’s culture, rather than a producer of one’s own is unacceptable”. In our Saint Lucian context, the growth of the Cultural industries requires support in two main areas: skills development and training and investment in the sector. Whilst government intervention is certainly needed for moving the sector forward, bold, com-plementary actions by the service providers within the Creative sector to seize existing opportunities are also critical. One such opportunity is the Protocol on Cultural Co operation which forsees inter alia technical assistance and cross-references to development instruments to

ensure the priority of cultural co operation between the EU and CARIFORUM States under the CARIFORUM EU Economic Part-nership Agreement (the EPA). Movements in Europe towards a European Union Parliamentary Resolution which defines and supports the Cultural dimen-sions of the EU’s external actions through “cultural diplomacy” is a promising sign for our cultural industry.

The Resolution calls for a strategy for im-plementing the Protocols for Cultural Co operation in its bilateral agreements that include promoting cultural events and ex-changes to improve mutual understanding and cultural educational and skill develop-ment including media and new information technologies.

Notwithstanding the above, perhaps the strongest signal yet of the importance and commitment of the EU to mutual develop-ment of the Cultural industries, is the push for the creation of a cultural visa for third-country (non EU) nationals who are ar-tistes and other professionals in the cultural fields. It is foreseeable that local artistes and pro-fessionals in the cultural field will benefit from training and skills enhancement pro-grammes in areas such as cultural event promotion and management. It also pro-vides an avenue for local artistes to further master their craft and raise the profile of the local Cultural industry in oversees markets. The challenge will be for the members of the Cultural Industries to commit to sup-porting their Sector Association PACE; ac-tively engage their regional counterparts and think up bold, innovative ways to seize these opportunities when they finally emerge. For more information on the Protocol on Cultural CO operation in the EPA , visit www.slcsi.org lc

“Whereas it is preferable to be primarily a producer and exporter, rather than net

importer in other sectors of the economy, it is absolutely indispensable in the cultural industries. To be simply a consumer of someone else’s culture, rather than a producer of one’s own, is

unacceptable. “

Opportunities for Developing the Cultural Industry of Saint Lucia

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Caribbean Idea Marketplace Supports Local Services Firms

The Caribbean Idea Marketplace (CIM) is a competition platform which aims to foster collaboration between local and global Caribbean diaspora entrepre-neurs to develop and expand innovative projects that will generate employment and economic growth. CIM is being imple-mented in the context of the International diaspora Engagement Alliance (IdEA) launched by secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Washington, DC at the

Secretary’s Global Diaspora Forum. In partnership with the US Depart-ment of State, Digicel and Scotiabank, Compete Caribbean has taken the lead in the design and management of the Caribbean Idea Marketplace. CIM is open to entrepreneurs and firms with business opportunities by sub-mitting a Project concept note. To be eligible, the project must compose of a Caribbean partner with a legally registered business or with intention to establish a business in a CARIFORUM country a Caribbean diaspora partner from the UK, US or Canada. The diaspora partner must be a citizen/permanent resident of one of the three countries mentioned above with Caribbean heritage/origin or strong ties to the Caribbean . The project note must demonstrate how it will develop either a new product/service or a new export market for an existing product/service. Services firms are encouraged to participate! Further information on the eligibility criteria and application process is available at www.competecaribbean.org/program.

The SLCSI will be undertaking a national Survey of service providers and services firms in key sectors in the coming weeks. The exercise is expected to run for four weeks, from 15th March to 15th April and forms part of the “Project Developing Saint Lucia’s Ser-vices sectors” . The following four sectors will be targeted: Professional services, Creative Industries, Health and Wellness and Information Communication Technology. The initiative is based on the recognition that in order to met the needs of the sector, policy makers and advocates of the sector must be well informed on the size of the respective sectors, the services offered, the constraints which persons in these sectors face in their daily operations and the areas where assistance would be most effective. To date, the dearth of information regarding this sec-tors has limited evidence data based policy making. It is anticipated that the Survey will provide much needed data to inform and guide future policymaking on the Services sector. The initiative is being undertaken with support from the Ministry of Commerce, Business Development and Consumer Affairs and the National Statistics Department..

Client:: SLCSI

Contract:: Marketing Consultant

Deadline: : 4.00pm on 16th March 2012

For more information visit

Website: www.slcsi.org.lc/opportunities

Or clink on link below:

Client:: EUROPE Ltd.

Contract: Senior Procurement Expert:

For Assignment “TA for Evaluation of

Saint Lucia New National Hospital

Equipment International Supplies Tender

Commencement date: 15th March

For more information: contact:

Ms. Regina Bodonovits

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.europeltd.com

National Services Sector Profile Survey On the Way

http://goo.gl/nDulR

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This series discusses the surprising mistakes that even very smart pro-fessionals make, and how to avoid them based on the Tangled WEB . The TANGLED WEB is a philosophy about connecting and reconnecting with people and about develop-ing interconnecting networks that help your business grow. In our last edition we looked at Mistake # 2 -You Network to Find Clients Not Strategic Partners . In this edition, we discuss MISTAKE #3: Giving Good Time to Bad Pros-pects. You don’t have to spend the same amount of time with everyone. Not all potential connections are a good fit for your business. Inefficient networking often includes accept-ing invitations to meet with people for no other reason than that they asked. Spending time with bad candidates means you have less time to spend with good ones. Worse, trying to keep up with all the people you meet can leave you so overwhelmed by the num-ber of people you’re supposed to keep in touch with that you don’t connect or keep in touch with anyone. Tangled Web Strategy: Invest Time Strategically not Evenly. Don’t accept every coffee invitation. It’s alright to say no if someone isn’t a good fit based on their profession or their personality. Spend time with good people who are good candi-dates and politely refuse the rest. Don’t give out, or try to collect a million business cards. Don’t worry about talking to everyone. One good connection is worth 50 business cards from people you’ll never call. Be sure to look out for our fourth networking tip in our next issue of Focus on Services! Adapted from the article“ Death by Coffee: The Seven most common, most surprising networking mistakes and how to do it better.” by Author: Alecia Huck

SLCSI Series on Networking Tips for Services Professionals : Part Three


SAINT LUCIA COALITION OF SERVICES INDUSTRIES P. O. Box Choc 8056 #19 Commercial Park Centre Bois d ’ Orange Castries, Saint Lucia. W.I. Tel: 1 758 452 7865 Fax: 1 758 452 8695 Email: [email protected] Website: www.slcsi.org.lc

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