(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Georgetown, Guyana)      In its continuing quest to train personnel and boost the profile of statistics in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the CARICOM Secretariat will host a Training Workshop on Merchandise Trade Statistics in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Statisticians from across the Region will gather in Kingstown from 26 January-5 February, 2015, for the workshop that is funded by the under the Tenth European Development Fund (EDF), CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) Economic Integration Programme.

The sessions target persons in charge of data processing, data dissemination, and data analysis of Merchandise Trade Statistics.

Core objectives of the workshop are: enabling harmonisation of the technical assistance in place across Member States on the Eurotrace Software by status updates; sharing good practices on the use of Eurotrace in trade data processing and its maintenance; and training in the trade dissemination and trade indices modules of the Eurotrace Software and presenting and identifying best practices for quality improvement of Merchandise Trade Statistics.

Among the main topics that will be covered during the workshop are: ‘The maintenance of the data processing system’; ‘Eurotrace domain – Conversion to SQL Server’; ‘  Web Comext – Installation and management’; ‘Mirror Statistics’; and ‘IMTS (International Merchandise Trade Statistics) recommendations’. The method of training will consist of a mix of lecture sequences, peer learning and practical sessions.

At the end of the workshop, participants should be able to accurately maintain the data processing system; produce trade indices and make accurate analysis of the results, and establish a work-plan toward International Merchandise Trade Statistics recommendations for the harmonisation and improvement of trade statistics. They should also be able to convert their MS ACCESS Eurotrace Domain in SQL Server; and install, configure and use Web Comext for extraction and for Mirror Statistics exercises with trading partners.