The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) in partnership with the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest), yesterday called on all eligible businesses to apply for CARIFORUM’s Regional Private Sector Development Programme grants to enhance their business growth.
According to GCCI’s Vice President, Lance Hinds, “Businesses in the Caribbean are invited to apply and submit the proposals and can get financial assistance up to 70% of your project cost or up to Euros 30,000 ($7-8M).”
The Caribbean Export Development Agency is a regional export and trade investment organization of the Forum of Caribbean States commonly known as ‘CARIFORUM’, and it is a beneficiary of the 10th European Development Fund.
Hinds said: “The objective of that (programme) would be to integrate the current CARIFORUM countries and also get the business to expand their opportunities and facilitate their growth.”
“Under that there is something called the Direct Assistance Scheme and that is a mechanism used by Caribbean Export to facilitate and enhance competitiveness and promote innovation within the CARIFORUM private sector,” he continued.
He further stated that the idea is to ensure Guyanese companies are advised of it and to make sure those who are eligible, those who are export-led and those who plan to get into the export market take full advantage of what is available to them.
He said that the guidelines and an application form are available on the website at www.carib-export.com.
Some of the requirements for eligible persons are that their businesses/firms have to be in operation for at least two years. Their application must also be supported by last two years of financial statements/accounts, and they must be able to finance and sustain their projects fully at the beginning; that is 100% financing must be available prior to project initiation.
Companies must also be able to demonstrate their potential to export goods and services as part of their business mandate.
Hinds added that some of the areas they are focusing on are alternative energy, agriculture, agro processing, creative industries, health and wellness, information and communication technology and manufacturing.
Hinds stated that business will have to be able to finance their projects first and then submit their expenditures to qualify for the refund. He noted that those projects last approximately six months and, once approved, companies will be able to submit expenditures twice within that period to get refunds.
He added that they must also be able to authenticate and notarize those expenditures when it is submitted.
He also said that for businesses locally to save monies Go-Invest in partnership with GCCI is offering to submit all applications providing that they are tendered on or before June 29, ahead of the July 6 deadline.
Hinds said that they are also looking to build the capacity in the Chamber, and to some extent Go-Invest, to be able to help businesses to understand what it takes to prepare themselves for these kinds of projects.
He said: “In terms of how you write the project, how you do the accounting, how you do the financing, how you project yourself in order to successfully win the approval, the effort is to be sure that you put together a project that is competitive as possible and the kind of project that will gain the attention of Carib-Export.”
Uchenna Gibson of Go-Invest noted that companies become eligible for financial reimbursement after their projects have been reviewed and approved by Carib Export.
She said: “When it is approved they send you a contract that you sign and the money spent after the contract is signed will be reimbursed, because the receipts and invoices will have to be dated after the date you sign the contract.”
GCCI also used the opportunity to launch their logo competition with the deadline being July 13. The winner will be awarded $100,000 and the competition is open to everyone; however, all designs must be the original work of the applicant.
The logo should convey elements of the GCCI’s mandate and can be submitted electronically to gccicommerce2009@gmail.com or addressed and delivered to Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 156 Waterloo Street, North Cummingsburg, Georgetown.
