A one-day training workshop on public procurement was held last week Thursday.

Public procurement details how public authorities spend public money when buying goods and services.

This can range from buying IT equipment or providing water, gas and electricity; to building a hospital or a road.

The training workshop was designed to increase participants' knowledge in the area of public procurement within the context of the implementation of the CARIFORUM-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

The CARIFORUM-EU EPA is a trade and development agreement that replaced the preferential arrangements that existed under the Lome Conventions. The new trading arrangement provides for the immediate, duty-free, and quota-free entry of goods from Saint Lucia into the markets of European Union member states; while Saint Lucia has been granted a period of 25 years within which to eliminate customs duties on imports of goods from European Union markets.

Saint Lucia, together with the rest of  CARICOM member states, the Dominican Republic and the European Community, signed the EPA in Oct. 2008. Provisional application of the EPA commenced in Dec. 2008. The rules on public procurement are contained in chapter three of the EPA.

The workshop is part of the European Union funded 10th EDF project titled: “Capacity Building Within the CARIFORUM in the Areas of Competition Law, Public Procurement and Customs and Trade Facilitation."

The workshop supports the implementation of the CARIFORUM-EU EPA, which is being implemented through a service contract by CARIFORUM as the contracting authority, along with Equinoccio, the contractor.

The participants from both the public and private sectors were able to acquire information pertaining to the significance of public procurement to nation-building, key concepts and guiding principles of public procurement, and the international trade dimension of public procurement. The facilitator for the workshop was Richard Panton of the International Procurement Institute (INPRI), Jamaica.

The workshop was held at the Royal Conference Room, Royal by Rex Resorts, Rodney Bay.