With local entrepreneurial growth, particularly in the agri-foods sector having long been hampered by chronic weaknesses in mechanisms to allow for businesses to access regional, extra-regional and even local markets, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), through its Regional Economic Project Initiative, is seeking to help remove that constraint by working with the state-run Small Business Bureau (SBB) to introduce an e-commerce regime designed to create a new opening for local products to benefit from significantly enhanced market access.
Earlier this week, IICA, in a brief on the initiative shared with the Stabroek Business, disclosed that it said that it will be partnering with the SBB and One Cart Company, a digital marketplace that enables businesses from across the country, to create their own ‘digital stores’ from where they can market their products. Asserting that the service will function “similar to Amazon,” the release said that the facility will allow consumers to secure all locally-produced agro-processed products online as well as to have those products delivered to their doorsteps utilising the One Cart delivery service. The service is expected to be launched during the first week in September.