February 2017 |Business View Caribbean

6 7 opening lines lic education component of the economic integration and trade program of the OECS region, funded by the 10th European Development Fund. The next forum is slated for Dominica on Friday, February 10, from 1pm - 3pm. It will focus on climate change, its impact on small island developing states, as well as adaptation and mitigation measures being implemented by OECS member states. The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and a team of Norwegian experts have concluded a successful two-week fact-finding mission in the Caribbean aimed at identifying critical ways in which Norway can support the sustainable development of Caribbean fisheries and aquaculture. The team, comprised of Milton Haughton, CRFM Executive Director; Dr. Åge Høines, senior scientist, Institute of Marine Research, Norway; and Mr. Johán Williams, Specialist Director, Nor- wegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, met with senior executives of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat in Guyana, as well as ministers, permanent secretaries, chief fisheries officers, and other stakehold- ers in sample countries, affording the team an opportunity to look at the spectrum of fisheries operations across the region in countries and communities with varying types of fisheries and Caribbean Embraces Fisheries CollaborationwithNorway levels of development. The seven coun- tries covered in the mission were The Ba- hamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago. In Guyana, Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder, said that not only is the cooper- ation timely but it also augurs well for research and management of the fisheries sector. “It is important to build on the ca- pacity which already exists and expand, to ensure that Guyana’s fisheries sector con- tinues to thrive,” the Minister said. On receiving the mission in Trinidad and Tobago, Angela Siew, the Permanent Secre- tary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries in that mem- ber state, said that she was thrilled at the timing of the proposal espoused by the tech- nical mission from Norway. “I am partic- ularly pleased with the capacity-building objective of the program, as the current economic tides have gravely impeded the Ministry’s staffing within the fisheries sector. The program, therefore, presents a unique and much needed opportunity for the human resource capacity to be en- hanced within the fisheries sector,” Siew