Caribbean Export and Business Support Organizations

Strengthening BSO Partnerships

to improve the uptake of funds by regional private sector firms and BSOs to the facility and ultimately increase the number of successful applications. RegionalBSOsalsocollaboratewithCaribbeanExport inproviding access to finance for firms, not only via the delivery of grant proposal writing, but also through the sensitization of financial institutions. Like Caribbean Export, support organisations, are cognizant of the challenges faced by their members when interfacing with the regional banking and financial sector. Therefore, BSO cooperation is essential when advocating the importance of financing facilities geared towards providing aid for SMEs and entrepreneurs. As a result, Caribbean Export has successfully signed six Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) in five countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Dominica, Jamaica, and Suriname.

Regional Financial Institutions Signing MOUs with Caribbean Export

Financial Institution

Country

Antigua and Barbuda Development Bank Bahamas Development Bank Grand Bahama Port Authority Limited Dominica Coalition of Services Industries National Foundation of Dominica The National Export-Import Bank of Jamaica The Suriname National Development Bank

Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Bahamas Dominica Dominica Jamaica Suriname

The grant writing workshops are carried out across CARIFORUM in partnership with national BSOs with the objective of not only increasing awareness amongst the private sector and BSOs but also to explain and illustrate to the attending BSOs how to prepare an application for grant funding, inclusive of objectives, goals, outputs, methodology, description of activities, action plan and budget development. This knowledge transfer to BSOs is crucial capacity building, if they are to successfully provide hands-on assistance to their clients when they are preparing applications.

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