(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Speaking to members of the international media at a press conference following opening remarks delivered on the occasion of the launching of the two-day 2nd CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum in London on August 8, the Hon. Anthony Hylton, MP, Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce of Jamaica implored the Region’s private sector operators who have had a mixed record of utilizing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) not to be “bogged down by a focus on macro level issues.”
Rather, he said, “should these operators wish to make inroads into the European market, they have to drill down to and be taken up with firm-level ‘micro-issues’ that actually make business happen. By this I mean ensuring that firms are in compliance with standards, but importantly that they are competitive and adaptable, product-wise, to ever-changing consumer preferences in the European market place. Regional firms also need to be minded of the fundamentals of trade, as relates to productivity and innovation.”
The Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) in collaboration with the African Caribbean & Pacific States Business Climate (ACP BizClim) is hosting the event.
In response to the view that there are many regional firms that are not as yet export ready, Minister Hylton urged that rather than viewing this situation as a “negative, per se, view it as an opportunity for such firms to learn from best practices in respect of and be mentored by counterparts that are export ready.” He highlighted the role of Caribbean Export in facilitating such interaction. However, the Minister also pointed to governments. “They must do their part to support enterprises,” the Minister said, noting further that “governments need to forge closer partnerships with their respective private sectors, to help them in their efforts to become export ready.”
In respect of Caribbean Export’s role in advancing the cause of firm-level ‘micro issues’, Ms Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director of Caribbean Export, said that the vision of her Agency is to “intervene at the firm level to begin to translate, in a tangible fashion, how the EPA can work for firms. A lot of us have focused on the ‘macro level’ for years, regarding the benefits that can come from the Agreement, but we fail to go sector-by-sector, firm-by-firm to pinpoint, diagnose and implement those mechanisms that can actually enable firms to achieve market penetration with respect to the European Union (EU).” The Executive Director went on to note that “at Caribbean Export, we have a model and a programme in that regard. With respect to the model, we are engaged in the build up of the Helix Model – a tool to diagnose firms at inception, operational and implementation levels, and depending on where they are we intervene at the specific point of need of the respective firm. The Break Point initiative is our programme that serves to give life to our model and which enables firms to develop their product(s), to get mentoring and to ‘pitch’ to investors, venture capitalists and distributors. Therefore Caribbean Export partners with firms, taking them through every stage on the road to success with respect to penetrating the EU market.”
Minister Hylton was emphatic, though, that in the final analysis “CARIFORUM states must take full advantage of the resources that are currently available to assist with private sector development in the Region.” The suite of 10th EDF resources that the Minister pointed to, in this regard, includes inter alia those that are geared at: (i) supporting the regulatory environment in CARIFORUM states, as relates to trade and investment; (ii) enhancing innovation and competitiveness in CARIFORUM firms, through direct assistance and other forms of technical support; and (iii) building market knowledge, through timely and targeted market intelligence.
Minister Hylton also took the opportunity to highlight the importance of efforts to improve trade and investment relations between CARIFORUM states and the French Caribbean territories, namely French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique. He underlined that, “the French Caribbean can play an important role in preparing CARIFORUM producers to satisfy EU requirements. Cooperation with the French Caribbean can also assist CARIFORUM states in embarking on EU supported projects that are of mutual benefit to all concerned parties.”
The fifteen signatory Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific (CARIFORUM) States to the EPA are the independent CARICOM Member States and the Dominican Republic.
