Jamaica and other CARICOM Member States who have not yet done so, are being encouraged to sign the Protocol on Public Procurement. This push is being made by the Officer-in-Charge of the CARICOM Secretariat, CSME Unit, Ms. Gladys Young. She was speaking this morning at the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce’s 2019 Procurement Seminar at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston.
Ms. Young highlighted the benefits of having an expanded market through procurement opportunities in 14 CARICOM Member States and improved efficiency. She also mentioned opportunities for Medium Small and Micro Enterprises through networking and joint bidding on larger projects. Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda and Belize have signed the CARICOM Protocol on Public Procurement and have also signed the Declaration to Provisionally Apply. Once two more countries sign the Protocol and the Declaration to Provisionally Apply, the Protocol will be provisionally applied among those countries that have so declared.
A CARICOM Secretariat team is in Jamaica this week collaborating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT) on a series of CSME engagements with the private and public sectors, labour and other stakeholders.
