The OECS Secretariat has assured a major regional meeting on public procurement of its full support for the best possible balanced regional system for acquiring goods and services.The OECS Secretariat’s Pharmaceutical Procurement Service (PPS) as well as its Electronic Government Regional Integration of project (EGRIP) were among the key presenters at the first Caribbean Commonwealth Public Procurement Network’s Technical Conference which was held in Castries from May 17^th to 18^th2010.

Sports in the OECS will be heightened as the week closes with two (2) major sporting events in our Member States. The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis will be infected with netball fever as the 2010 COURTS OECS Club Netball Championships takes place from May 19 – 24. The champion clubs from our member states are willing and ready to do battle in what is expected to be a very keenly contested competition.

The OECS Secretariat says the entire value chain that serves the hospitality/tourism sector to include the activities of farmers, food distributors, and culinary services, craft folk, agro-processors; agriculture farm heritage site operators and food vendors are among those to benefit directly from efforts to further link the agriculture and tourism sectors in the sub-region.

(OECS Secretariat, Castries, St Lucia) A number of community persons are expected to benefit from a new livelihoods project to be launched by the OECS Secretariat in the southern town of Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia next Wednesday, May 19^th. The project will be launched at 10:00 a.m. at the Sandy Beach, an area of seaside, which forms part of a large protected area, called the Point Sable Environmental Protection Area (PSEPA).