The Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) in partnership with Republic Bank Ltd hosted the first workshop for small businesses in Trinidad and Tobago following the signing of a landmark MOU between the two organisations, to build the capacity of small businesses using a referral system, ensuring businesses receive assistance to develop, grow and create jobs.
The 3-day workshop focused on preparing the participants’ businesses for export, increasing knowledge in market research, marketing & promotion and the development of export plans.
A key feature of the programme was the experiential learning and tuition that was received from external experts from the Export-Import Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, local freight forwarder Cargo Consolidators Agency Ltd, Trinidad & Tobago Bureau of Standards, ExporTT and agro-processor RHS Limited. The Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association was also a key partner in mobilising the participation of its members.
In an interview with Loop News on Friday, Team Lead Natasha Walcott, Senior Advisor – Competitiveness & Export Promotion from Caribbean Export Development Agency, said their aim is to continue to build awareness and raise the visibility of the Agency in Trinidad to ensure that SMEs can receive the full benefit of the support their offers, whether it be training and capacity building, grant funding or export promotion.
Ms Walcott said in 2021, 31 companies from Trinidad and Tobago were awarded an estimated €700K in grant funding and from 2017 to 2021 and 1,475 stakeholders benefitted from various interventions.
She said on Thursday, officials conducted several site visits to recipients to observe their plans and projects they would have received funding for. She said that the exercise is expected to continue today as well.
Ms Walcott noted that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency’s grant system would have been a reimbursable grant where the companies would have had to put the money for their projects and then apply to Caribbean Export for reimbursement for up to 70 percent of those funds.
“However, during the pandemic, we undertook a survey and we recognised that access to finance was the key issue that firms were facing and so we changed the model, and instead of it being a reimbursable grant, it became a direct assistance grant so the firms who qualified were dispersed grants in tranches over a 6 month period.”
She explained however that a new business would not qualify for the grant as the Agency has to ensure that they are able to ensure sustainability in the business as well as plans for future expansions.
“To qualify for our grants you would have had to be in business for at least 2 years and as part of the process we review financials and we also ensure that you’re ready for export. All of the companies that received grants however are not firms that we would have worked with before, so all 19 from this last tranche, would have been firms from T&T who we would have not worked with before or who would have not received a grant from us before.”
When asked about the target markets emerging as a result of the grant funding, Ms Walcott said as it pertains to the Agro-processing business, the majority market remained local and within Caricom countries, while the US and Europe were the leading export markets for services.
She said Caribbean Export will be participating in several Trade Shows in the coming months including the SIAL Food Business Platform (https://www.sialparis.com/) which will be held in Paris in October this year and they are also considering shows in the UK as well carded for September.
Ms Walcott is therefore inviting companies from Trinidad and Tobago to log on to their website www.carib-export.comand subscribe to their mailing list to receive opportunities as well as be informed of all activities from capacity building to export promotion and investments.
Ms Walcott is a Trade Advisor with over 10 years of experience in multilateral and regional trade policy. She is the Senior Advisor, Competitiveness and ExportPromotion at Caribbean Export Development Agency where her role involves assisting SMEs to become more competitive, become export ready and take their products to market.
She has worked at the OECS Trade Mission in Geneva Switzerland, advocating and defending OECS Member State interests before the World TradeOrganisation, UNCTAD and other International Organisations. She is also a former employee of Invest Saint Lucia working in investment promotion.
