By Byron Buckley, News EditorARCHITECTS AND engineers are the latest group of professionals selected to operate in the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) that is to come on stream next January, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson disclosed yesterday.
Next year Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago will form a common marketplace for the free trading in goods, services, capital and skills. The trio is going ahead of the other states in the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) which will enter the single market arrangement in 2006.
A further stage of integration the single economy involving common fiscal targets, currency and exchange rates is to be ushered in during 2008.
ACTS TO BE AMENDED
The agreement to set up the CSME already provides for the free movement of various occupational groups: university graduates, media workers, sports persons, artistes and musicians.
But the prime minister told senior journalists yesterday at his office at Jamaica House that the Jamaican legislature would seek to amend the Professional Engineers and the Architects' Registration Acts by January 1, 2005. This is to allow members of these professions in CARICOM territories to be eligible for registration here on equal footing with their Jamaican counterparts. Similar provisions are expected to be implemented in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago to facilitate Jamaican architects and engineers doing business in those countries.
Mr. Patterson also indicated that Parliament would seek to enact the Caribbean Community (Movement of Factors) Act, 2004, by January 1, 2005, to remove the necessity of work permits for CARICOM nationals who fall in the selected groups. He explained that as an interim measure, an amendment will be made to the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act.
"It should be understood, however, that clear eligibility criteria will be applied in relation to persons who wish to benefit from the waiver of work permit requirements," cautioned Mr. Patterson. "The Ministry of Labour and Social Security will maintain ultimate responsibility for this process with appropriate support from the Ministry of National Security."
