The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) are working to help local businesses to secure financial, technical and marketing support available to enhance their competitive capacity on the regional and international markets.
Senior Vice President of the GCCI Lance Hinds and Go-Invest official Euchena Gibson announced at a media briefing on Wednesday that the collaborative initiative by the two agencies will target business support opportunities such as that being offered by the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Carib Export). In April last year, Carib Export secured more than €32 million from the European Union (EU) to support the development of the private sector in Cariforum member countries.
The announcement comes in the wake of local private sector entities missing out on opportunities being offered by Carib Export to businesses in the region, to secure potentially lucrative marketing opportunities for their goods and services in Europe.
Last week, this newspaper reported on the failure of any Guyanese business entity to take advantage of a region-wide Carib Export initiative aimed at boosting the capacity of the private sector to secure access to the European market place. Stabroek Business had learnt through Carib Export sources that no Guyanese company had participated in the entity’s Break Point competition which required regional businesses to submit profiles to support a product and service promotion push in the United Kingdom. Several business entities from elsewhere in the region that entered the competition have been rewarded with the opportunity to make marketing pitches at the London Summer Olympics.
This week, Stabroek Business learnt that local architects had missed out on an opportunity to participate in a Carib Export-sponsored Design Showcase aimed at showcasing regional architecture at the London Olympics. Investigations by the newspaper revealed that the Guyana Architects Association was unaware of this opportunity. However, this newspaper has learnt from Carib Export that the event was promoted in the region through the Federation of Local Architects, which “disseminated the information to respective agencies in each territory.” Carib Export also told this newspaper that the deadline for the submission of expressions of interest by regional architects had been extended by several weeks in order to facilitate potential entrants. Earlier this week an official of the local association of architects told Stabroek Business that the organisation had not been in receipt of the information regarding the event.
At this week’s media briefing, the representatives of the chamber and Go-Invest sought to ensure that yet another Carib Export initiative did not escape the attention of the private sector. Under the most recent Carib Export initiative local and regional firms can access grants of up to €30,000 to finance projects based on proposals submitted to Carib Export under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) Private Sector Development Programme.
During the briefing, Hinds provided the media with details of the most recent Carib Export initiative including eligibility rules for firms wishing to participate in the exercise. According to Hinds, the eligibility rules dictate that project proposals submitted by regional firms aim at one or more of a number of objectives including the opening of new markets, increasing exports to the Caribbean and to other international markets; lowering production costs; identifying new sources of supply for raw material and other inputs; enhancing productivity through training and productivity development and facilitating trade mark, intellectual property and copyright protection. Project proposals must also focus on capitalizing on the benefits of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the Caricom-Dominica Free Trade Agreement, Hinds said. He added that start-up firms, which have not been financially operational for at least two years are not eligible to make submissions. He explained that since the rules of the Carib Expo grant dictate that participating firms spend on their projects “up front’ and await subsequent reimbursement from Carib Export, financially weak entities might find it difficult to meet that criterion.
Meanwhile, the GCCI and Go-Invest officials told the media that the two will set up a joint facility aimed at assisting local private sector entities in ensuring that their submissions are delivered to the Carib Export Secretariat.
