CASTRIES, St Lucia, (OECS) – Fostering and enhancing the export competitiveness of Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) enterprises is a key goal of the Competitive Business Unit (CBU) of the OECS Commission. This translates to a specific activity of building and strengthening the capacities of OECS entrepreneurs in business establishment, development, competitiveness and trade.
The OECS Manufacturing Sector, across our member states, is characterized by a large percentage of Medium Small and Medium-Sized family-owned and managed enterprises that generally are constrained by limited management and production capacity.
The sector is generally underdeveloped compared to tourism for example and faces a number of problems which include high cost of production cost and low productivity related to raw material and utility costs; inadequate levels of investments in technology and equipment; poor management, planning and marketing skills; limited capacity for quality standards compliance and limited market intelligence knowledge of multilateral trading requirement. There are also limitations in the business ecosystem and challenges in policy, legislative and regulatory framework. The OECS Member States are furthermore prone to a number of natural disasters and can be disproportionately impacted by external shocks and crisis such as COVID-19.
Against the background of these challenges, the OECS CBU therefore will be conducting a series of national virtual dialogue consultations with OECS MSMEs in the manufacturing sector and related business support organisations to reinvigorate the engagement with the sector as they grapple with new strategies, priorities and measures. The opportunity will also be taken to introduce the new head of unit, Kareem Guiste, who hails from the Commonwealth of Dominica and comes with a wealth of experience in marketing, business development and regulation in both the public and private sector within the general business, energy and telecommunication space.
The consultations are scheduled for the following days in June and July.
June 28, 2021 – Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica
July 9, 2021 – St Vincent and the Grenadines
July 16, 2021 – St. Kitts and Nevis and Anguilla
July 23, 2021 – Saint Lucia
July 30, 2021 – Montserrat and Tortola
Our role is a pivotal one and as such we will continue to work with all our stakeholders toward enabling an environment for sustainable response and successful growth.
For information about how to join the webinar, please follow OECS’ and the OECS competitive business unit’s facebook pages.
