BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — The Bahamas Mission to the European Union in Brussels recently hosted a virtual meeting with Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) and key stakeholders of the government and the private sector of The Bahamas.
The meeting was in keeping with the national and regional strategic priorities to support inclusive and sustainable economic growth and development through trade, investment, private sector development and sustainable industrialisation.
Ambassador Maria O’Brien acknowledged that The Bahamas’ engagement with CEDA was minimal until 2020 and advocated for a deeper engagement with The Bahamas in meetings in Brussels with CEDA. Subsequently, CEDA visited several key stakeholders in The Bahamas in early 2020, which played a role in strengthening institutional capacity for the private sector. However, O’Brien admitted that more could be achieved in a practical manner for SMEs through regional programmes.
The Caribbean Export Development Agency is supported by the European Union under the 11th Economic Development Fund (EDF) and is in its fourth year of implementation. The programme’s overall aim is to increase employment by building private sector capacity, strengthening business support organization to the private sector and promoting trade development.
Recently-appointed Executive Director Deodat Maharaj identified three pillars of support available to The Bahamas to fast track its post-COVID-19 recovery efforts and build resilience.
The first pillar is investment promotion that will support The Bahamas by steering foreign direct investments and support inter-regional investment flows through a virtual investment forum that will direct European investors to The Bahamas. The first virtual investment forum attracted 47 countries and 567 business participants that attended the online investment forum for Guyana.
The second pillar supports export promotion and development. CEDA will create a sustainable development hub focusing on new products and new markets that The Bahamas can bring to key markets, creating jobs while accessing premium prices for products like organic and climate-friendly goods that meet the sustainability criteria. This pillar aims to create a link between buyers from the European market with producers and suppliers from The Bahamas.
The third pillar will focus on hospitality services since the GDP of most countries in the region is dependent on tourism. Maharaj noted the focus for The Bahamas’ non-tourism sector services will be on the creative industries, Junkanoo, music and fashion and competent skills in the tourism sector.
The Direct Assistance Grant programme is also available to SMEs to support the private sector recovery efforts. Three Bahamian companies — Kairos Maritime Services Ltd, One Eleuthera Foundation and the Coconut Factory — benefitted from the last call for proposals, receiving a combined total of $54,000 (€45,000.00). Maharaj indicated there would be a new call for proposals at the end of May valued at $24,000 (€20,000) and encouraged representatives from the private sector to apply.
The executive director identified The Bahamas, St. Kitts and Nevis and Suriname as countries that did not benefit much from grants over the implementation period. Jamaica received 44 grants, accounting for 50 percent of the allotted amount.
O’Brien indicated that CEDA reaffirmed its commitment to support creative industry stakeholders, meeting virtually with representatives from the music industry, the Bahamas Music and Entertainers Union and the Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence, thanks to the quick actions of Acting Director of Trade and Industry Brickell Pinder. The goal of the meeting was to equip all creative industry stakeholders with adequate information to assist them in exporting their craft. The service export expert from CEDA, Allison Francis, highlighted the Business of Music programme that will assist musicians with creating an export development plan, finding market intelligence to determine how and where the music is best suited, identifying a niche for their respective brands, developing a music marketing plan, finding and negotiating with publishers and distributors and informing them of intellectual property to protect their contracts. On completion of the online programme training, CEDA will discuss the next steps with each stakeholder.
According to O’Brien, the framework to build capacity in a sustainable manner is available to the creative sector, but Bahamian creative industry stakeholders must be able to take advantage of the opportunities. She also stated that with CEDA, the Embassy in Brussels and the Trade and Industry Unit reaffirmed its commitment to assisting Bahamian artists to access the international market and to showcase the creative industry in Europe.
Further information on the Business of Music Programme is available on www.carib-export.com. For assistance in grant writing, email the Trade and Industry Unit at trade@bahamas.gov.bs by May 7, 2021.
