St Lucia meeting to map out strategies to strengthen small businesses in the Caribbean
16 May 2008
The Commonwealth Secretariat in association with the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce is organising a two-day workshop to discuss solutions to challenges facing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Caribbean region.
The meeting, to take place in Castries, St Lucia, from 27 to 28 May 2008, will attract senior government officials from Commonwealth Caribbean small states, business people, the banking sector and regional organisations involved in the development of the sector in the region.
Participants will be drawn from Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The objective of the meeting is to enable Commonwealth Caribbean countries and others in the region to share experiences about SME development in their territories, and identify potential solutions as well as sources of support for implementation.
There will also be presentations from participants from Singapore and South Africa - bringing in perspectives and experiences from other Commonwealth countries beyond the Caribbean.
Discussions will centre on access to finance, business services, trade in services and developing competitive services based export economies.
“Small and medium enterprises have been recognised as effective means to facilitate economic development,” said David Ashiagbor, an economic adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat.
“While globalisation and trade liberalisation can create opportunities for SMEs, those in small states face unique challenges in addition to the traditional ones of lack of access to finance, business services - limited domestic markets, high unit of costs of production, remoteness, and all other forms of vulnerabilities. This workshop is intended to provide a platform for policy-makers and private sector representatives to discuss practical solutions to some of these issues.”
Strengthening the investment climate in developing countries, and promoting investment in SMEs, is a major objective of the Secretariat's work.
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