Stakeholders in the Services Sector across the Region will seek to develop Regional Strategies and Action Plans to boost investment, output, employment and trade in the sector when they meet at a Regional Symposium in Antigua and Barbuda, 17 – 19 October, 2016.

The event, which will bring together public and private sector representatives from CARICOM/CARIFORUM Member States will focus on increasing business in several priority areas including:

ROSEAU, Dominica, Dominica News Online – Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, has said the government of Dominica has donated US$100,000 to The Bahamas following the passage of Hurricane Matthew.

US$100,000 was also donated to Haiti, the hardest hit by Matthew, to meet that country’s immediate needs.

Skerrit, who is a heading a CARICOM delegation to the affected countries as Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Governments, arrived in The Bahamas on Wednesday after visiting Haiti.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haitian interim President Jocelerme Privert on Tuesday played down the international aid response to Hurricane Matthew, saying some promised foreign aid had yet to materialise and that the devastated country was mostly funding its own recovery.

Southwestern Haiti was smashed by the Category 4 hurricane on Oct. 4, which barreled through the southern coast of the poor island nation, killing some 1,000 people and displacing hundreds of thousands.

CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica and Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque met on Tuesday with the interim President of hurricane devastated Haiti H.E Jocelerme Privert.

The Chairman and Secretary-General are in Haiti for a first hand look at the devastation caused by Hurricane Matthew, which hit the country last week with winds of up to 145 miles an hour and torrential rains, leaving hundreds dead and thousands displaced.

Regional environmental officers are attending a workshop to help them prepare for a major international conference on biodiversity, to be held in Mexico in December. The CARICOM ACP-MEAs project is hosting the regional workshop October 11-13 at the Grand Coastal Hotel in Guyana.