Entrepreneurial aspirants from various Caribbean territories, including Guyana, last week secured an opportunity to learn more about the procedures and challenges associated with venturing into the realm of business through an April 9th – 10th Work-shop staged in Barbados by the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export), in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA).
Thirty-two representatives from state and non-state agencies in Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago were in attendance.
The primary focus of the workshop was to seek to improve the regional business climate by strengthening the procedures associated with starting a business. Guided by the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report, it also sought to critically assess the current procedures, cost and time needed to start a business in the Caribbean, as well as review global best practices and develop a responsive action plan for near-term implementation.
Against the backdrop of sluggish World Bank assessments of Ease of Doing Business in several Caribbean territories the forum employed as a guide for its execution the track record of Jamaica which ranks among the top 10 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report for Starting a Business.
“It is hoped that in the future we can continue to work with CAIPA to tackle other hurdles that are negatively affecting or may negatively affect the attraction of investment into the Caribbean,” an official associated with the forum was quoted as saying.
The forum also benefitted from a Caribbean Community Secretariat presence in the person of Director of Economic policy and development Evelyn Wayne who said at the opening of the event that it was “directly aligned to the commitment to adopt a Community Investment Policy for CARICOM States, which, among other things, addresses the modernisation of the role of public authorities, to improve investment facilitation procedures.”
While acknowledging what is widely regarded as only moderately successful efforts in many CARICOM Territories to create an enabling environment for foreign investment, the forum sought to explore ways to realize that goal through regulatory reforms which, Commonwealth Secretariat Trade Advisor, Opeyemi Abebe, asserted was critical to improving the prevailing environment.
Abebe said that the Secretariat was “committed to helping the developing and small member States of the Commonwealth address challenges faced in facilitating investment and building that capacity to implement some key interventions that Governments can execute to improve the business climate for attracting investment.”
The Commonwealth Secretariat is currently funding the execution of a study aimed at developing action plans to strengthen the procedures to start a business in the Caribbean.
Regional investment promotion agencies, attorneys who provide support for foreign firms seeking to incorporate their companies in the region, registrars of companies and other private sector functionaries also participated in the forum.
