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Tradewatch
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The Official E-Newsletter of the Caribbean Export Development Agency • Vol. 8 No. 2 March - April 2014
TRAINING & CERTIFICATION FOR CAPACITY BUILDING
Caribbean Export Facilitates Regional Participation
in Iberoamerican Handicraft Seminar
The creative industries took a front seat once again when the sub-
regional office (SRO) of Caribbean Export located in Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic gave the island’s handicraft regulation authorities,
ONART and CENADARTE, the opportunity to participate in an international
Iberoamerican Handicraft Seminar. The workshop, which took place from
March 10-14, 2014 in Cartagena, Colombia, was developed in order to
equip the organizations with the knowledge of, and tools to implement,
the best practices of the region in accordance with The Spanish Agency
of International Cooperation in Colombia (AECID), which is the body
which dictates these standards and procedures within the Latin American
region. The agencies would then be better able to offer technical and
structural support to the independent craft artisans of the Dominican
Republic, thus creating a conducive environment for competitively viable
trade and export in the craft industry.
Participants listen keenly during presentations at the
Iberoamerican Handicraft Seminar in Colombia
The content of the five-day programme examined policies
with regards to commercialization, export control and
quality standards, in particular and operational effectiveness
in general. After expounding on these tenants in detail,
the sessions went on to critically assess the current state
of operations locally. The standards of the AECID were used
as a bench mark for the unification of processes, policies
and legislature which structure the craft sector and promote
traditional craft exports. The principal constraints identified
as a result of this benchmarking process were the need
of quality standardization and more structured training
programmes with qualified facilitators in the various
subsectors.
The Agency, through engagement with ONART and
CENADART, aims to integrate the handicraft sector in a
strategic into the tourism sector, one of the Dominican
Republic’s major exports. The craft sector, through this
partnership, would gain the much needed boost to visibility
and potential consumption that a strong presence in the
tourism industry affords. However, the sector has the
potential to develop independently of tourism, as indicated
in the private sector component of the Caribbean Export
Binational programme, where handicraft was identified as
one of the priority sectors for development and export in
Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
This programme is a continuation of an ongoing
developmental project, in which ONART and CENADART
since its inception. The workshop represents the fourth phase
of the project, which aimed to improve the functionality
of the handicraft sector in Hispaniola through a focus on:
creating a base line for productivity; the establishment of
a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation between
Haiti and the Dominican Republic; the benchmarking of the
current state of the sector using the Colombian model as
reference for the standardization of the national products
and the development of a training and certification
programme. Both ONART and CENADART agreed to focus on
the architecture of the subsectors of papier mache, jewelry,
cut metal, and ceramics in order to optimize their market
potential.
Through this workshop, and other collaborative efforts,
the organizations are working towards the standardization
of quality and norms for the handy craft in the island.
(TW)
Iberoamerican Handicraft Seminar 2014 facilitators and participants