Caribbean Export and Business Support Organizations

Capacity Building Approaches for BSOs in Trade and Investment

Report on Assessment of BSOs to determine trade support functions Between January 2012 and April 2013, Caribbean Export completed consultations in all 15 CARIFORUM States for the purpose of identifying national BSOs that perform trade support functions. Fifty-five (55) BSOs and eight government departments were consulted during this process, and the results of those consultations were utilised by the Agency to map the regional landscape, identify where institutional gaps and weaknesses exist, and gain a better understanding of how BSOs were responding to private sector trade support needs. The majority of the agencies examined indicated that they lacked the sufficient technical capacity, and financial resources to fully provide their clients with trade information and market intelligence services, amongst other services. The responses pointed to needs for: 1. Capacity building and trade Information training 2. Data collection and analysis 3. Training in trade promotion services 4. A Regional Market Intelligence Portal 5. Business matching including identifying buyers and suppliers. 6. Financial and technical support for trade missions and related activities These findings were confirmed by participants of the numerous BSOs during the various training programmes conducted by Caribbean Export, in particular the ones, which focused on building capacity for providing enhanced trade information services. Benchmarking Caribbean Export implemented a pilot programme in 2013 for full TPO Benchmarking and Assessments involving three BSOs within the region, namely: Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC), the Dominican Republic Export and Investment Centre (CEI-RD), and the National Export Facilitation Organization of Trinidad and Tobago (ExporTT). Two further assessmentswere completed in2014 including the Belize Trade and Investment Development Services (BELTRAIDE) and the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO). Additional TPOs will have an opportunity to undertake assessments of their agencies 1

1 Caribbean Export was trained on the Benchmarking tool and methodology and the Agency was selected during the 2012/13 biennium to design, improve, test and apply the ITC’s Benchmarking Assessment Tool.

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