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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.
Capacity Building Approaches
for BSOs in Trade and Investment