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That's the purpose of its Caribbean Single Market and Economy, better known as CSME. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is hosting The CARICOM Secretariat in Belize to further their consultations surrounding CSME. I was there and here's what I gathered from the discussions.

Students, Stakeholders from both private and public sectors gathered together this morning to participate in an open discussion with the CARICOM Secretariat currently visiting Belize, to gather feedback on the CARICOM single market and economy implementation process. The Director of the CSME leads these discussions, and gave us more insight as to what they are trying to accomplish through consultations.

Leo Titus Preville, Director, CARICOM Single Market
"We are here because we are working with the government of Belize as part of why we call the country mission. So the CARICOM Secretariat has come to Belize as it has done over the last year, during this year, to three other member states and the whole idea is to bring the CARICOM secretariat closer to the member states where you are able to engage with civil society as we are doing today, meeting young people as we are doing for the tertiary students gathered here. Meet with government officials so yesterday we met with the Minister Of Agriculture as we had a tour of one of your poultry processing plants. And the whole idea is to meet with stakeholders to get from them, and the secretariat is adopting a listening mode where we will be making some presentations but will be adopting a listening mode in listening to the stakeholders and hearing from them what are some of their concerns with the CSME, how it is working or not working for them. So for instance, yesterday, we met with the private sector and they have particular concerns with respect to access for labor. And the main area of labor shortage we have in Belize is agricultural labor so they are asking how can the CSME with its corporations in terms of movement of skilled persons be a platform to allow Belize to have access to labor. So it is about the CARICOM secretariat engaging with member states with the various stakeholders in member states to see how the arrangements we have already agreed to can be used to better service the needs of member states."

Deputy Mayor Allan Pollard was also present today representing the municipal public sector. He shared his thoughts on the discussions:

Allan Pollard, Deputy Mayor
"I think for the most part it was very good to see the students engaged most importantly some of the questions were really thought provoking and you know for the most part a lot of the students answered and not just only the people from the Caribbean so that was refreshing to see some of the debates that were there as well. I think for the most part a lot of us weren't kind of informed on the formalities of the Caribbean community and some of the opportunities that may be there that we are not informed about or not paying attention to so seeing that the leads were able to inform us on that and make us more privy to some of the regulations that exist and the policies that exist for CARICOM I think that was important and refreshing to see."

And the students who showed up today saw this as an opportunity to gain a better understanding of what CSME is and how it benefits member states.

Xena Reyes, Marketing major, Galen University
"My interest here is to basically learn the different opportunities that we have as the next generation the future leaders. I want to see what the CARICOM and Caribbean communities have for me personally as a student you know I've been in the US I've been in Guatemala I've seen their different levels of education that they have here there compared to here and I just want to see my options as to where the future may lead me."

Thomas Serrut, Economics Major, Galen University
"Well my interest here is more so to understand what exactly CARICOM aims to accomplish for Belize but as well as for the wider Caribbean and exactly in which ways Belize can not only benefit but contribute to these efforts."

"What peaks my interest in particular is say is open markets because you there are many different currencies spread out across the Caribbean but if we want to establish something similar to the European Union perhaps we should look towards introducing a single currency for the Caribbean and becoming more interconnected in our financial firms and economic opportunities for Belizeans and just Free Trade."

Jonathan Chiquin, Marketing Major, UB
"My interest in here is growing and getting to know more experienced on how to grow Belize and how to get a better economic understanding of Belize and how to understand Belize more of the financial gain, the currency gain and how to grow Belize in different economies."

Consultations will continue up to October 4th.

The CARICOM Secretariat has taken this same education campaign to three other member states.