Georgetown : The concerns and implications of doing business in the Caribbean were among issues discussed during a four- hour engagement between the regional Ministers responsible for trade, agriculture and/or economic matters and the region’s private sector.
Given the importance attached to facilitating the business community as the engine of growthin the Caribbean, the special session with the regions’ private sector was among the first order of business, as the Caribbean Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) met over two days (November 11 to 13),at its 40th Ministerial meeting at the Pegasus Hotel in Guyana.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and this year’s COTED Chairperson Maxine Pamela Ometa McClean, speaking to the media, following the conclusion of the formal meeting, reported that there were fulsome discussions on a variety of subject areas that the body considered to be critical to the growth and development of its member states.
Speaking on the high-level engagement and frank dialogue with Private Sector Heads, McClean explained that the interchange focused on investment promotion, the challenges and priority for the business community, doing business in the Caribbean, and the successes of various private sector development interventions.
How successes could be replicated, unleashing the potential of micro and small enterprises, the cost and ease of doing business in the Caribbean, competitiveness, quality assurance, security in all its ramification, human, energy and food, community rights, media as part of the private sector and communication, particularly with respect to reportage of trade and economic issues, were among the matters which the special sessions deliberated on.
McClean explained that the Ministers’ recognised that a response to the private sector must be strategic and coherent, and should address subjects such as concentration, risk factors, use of cash limits for official transactions like customs, access to finance and the development of an effective communication strategy.
She said that the CARICOM Secretariat will establish a matrix on the actionable points of the discussion, and draw up an implementation schedule on those matters.
The special session with the region’s business community attracted representation from the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce, the Private Sector Organisationof Jamaica, Caribbean Agro-business Association, the Caribbean Poultry Association, Compete Caribbean-Inter-American Development Bank, the Economist Intelligence Unit-Colombia Law schools, Caribbean Exports, Caribbean Association of Small and Medium Enterprise, and the West Indian Rum and Spirits Association.
The COTED meeting also saw deliberation on the implication of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) application processing system, which is set to begin on a phased basis next year.
McClean added that along with this COTED, already started were the deliberations on the region’s future economic trade strategy and agenda, taking into account the request from other countries in the wider Caribbean and the hemisphere, to conclude trade agreements with CARICOM.
