Staff Members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat and representatives of GOPA Worldwide Consultants on Thursday participated in an interactive briefing session on a new project that is aimed at boosting the capacity of National Statistics Offices (NSOs).

GOPA Worldwide Consultants will undertake the project that is funded by the European Union (EU) under the Tenth European Development Fund (EDF).

The project’s overall objective is to provide decision-makers with high quality statistics to monitor and guide the development of CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and to build the capacity of the NSOs to produce statistics in keeping with international standards. Improvement in the use of economic statistics, training, the production of guidelines and the documentation of regional best practices in the use of national statistics are also expected outcomes of the consultancy.

It is anticipated that the project will specifically, address some of the weaknesses in data collection, such as in the area of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by expenditure and `Rest of the World Accounts’.

The forum at the CARICOM Secretariat featured presentations by representatives of the Secretariat’s Regional Statistics office which provided details on past and current initiatives to improve the quality of statistics compiled in the Region, and how the project will be conducted.
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