Chief Executive Officer of A-Z Jamaica Information Limited, Dr Noel Watson, has said his company aims to bring state of the art technology in its mission of deepening regional integration
His company has been contracted by CARICOM to facilitate the CARICOM Trade and Competitiveness Project (CTCP) which will ensure that nationals benefit fully from the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Consultants from CARICOM and the OECS Secretariats are currently participating in a consultation here in Dominica geared at standardizing and harmonizing processes within the region.
“If you wish to apply for a skills national certificate now, it involves a lot of walking around, filling out documents by hand,” Watson noted. “The people doing the processing do manual storage with files and a lot of things are being done manually. We envision that you may be able to start the application process online and when it gets to the free movement desk they can then distribute the documents electronically.”
According to him, applicants should be able to submit pictures and birth certificates electronically which in turn will speed up the process.
According to him fees and application processes vary from state to state and this should not be so and therefore the first component of the CTCP is to visit each member state and advise them on how these processes can be unified.
“If we are one region, one space, what we are aiming for is that if you close your eyes in any member state and apply for a national certificate,” he said. “You should be paying the same fee and that is part of what we are aiming at in this project, the aim is that wherever you are in the region, you understand the processes, you are not taken by surprise when you are accessing your rights, because remember, this is all about accessing your rights”.
Speaking at the consultation workshop, Director of Trade, Wellsworth Bethelmie said the region must ensure all administrative arrangements are in place in order for CSME to work properly.
He said the workshop aims to do just that. “We are going to look at the various best practices in the region and decide which of those practices are most appropriate to have a harmonized system in the entire region,” he said.
He pointed out that developing a harmonized administrative process is one main goal of the consultation.
Bethelmie stated further that people should recognise that the OECS Economic Union and the CSME are two different processes. “Most people might think that they can move freely into the CARICOM region just as they move within the OECS but it is not so,” he pointed out. “Whereas in the OECS we have free movement of persons and it is not categorized, the CSME is strictly categorized for the free movement of skilled persons, capital, right of establishment, and the free movement of services.”
The project which will help CARICOM nationals to travel, establish businesses, work and trade freely is expected to be completed by April/May 2014.
The CARICOM Single Market and Economy is intended to benefit the people of the region by providing more and better opportunities to produce and sell goods and services and to attract investment.
It will create one large market among the participating member states.
Let the campaign begin. Plenty Gifts just before Christmas!
It seems to me that “State of the Art technology” in the region alo means you dial then listen to music until the line cuts off and you can send emails but no one at the other end has to reply within a few weeks.
May Heaven help us when that is standardized and harmonized within the region.