- Andrew Smith/Photography Editor
Ambassador Jerry Narace, head of the CARICOM Trade Support (CTS) Programme in Trinidad & Tobago, gives an overview of the programme at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston yesterday morning.
Byron Buckley, News Editor
POLITICAL AND business leaders yesterday praised the Government of Trinidad and Tobago for establishing a $1 billion (US$16 million) fund to assist firms in Caribbean Community (CARICOM) territories to develop business projects.
Businesses outside of the host country can access interest free loans from the revolving fund to procure the services of regional consultants for projects. This, however, is just one element of the CARICOM Trade Support (CTS) Programme, which was launched by representatives of the T&T Government at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston yesterday.
Other components of the trade support programme include the facilitation of investment by firms from Trinidad and Tobago in CARICOM member-states through joint ventures and strategic alliances; as well as the provision of technical inputs from national and regional private sector umbrella bodies.
In launching the CTS on behalf of the Trinidadian Government, Ambassador-at-large Jerry Narace urged CARICOM to "move with expedition towards wider and deeper collaboration (and) to take advantage of the breathing space provided by the pause in the wider hemispheric and global negotiations." He urged member-nations to establish the single market and economy as quickly as possible.
In echoing this view, Jamaica's Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister K.D. Knight noted: "The sponsors of this initiative rightly realise that driving stronger entrepreneurship in CARICOM territories will foster improved trade and economic performance and stimulate wealth creation across the region. This will in turn generate more jobs and improved well-being for CARICOM citizens."
Andre Gordon, president of the Jamaica Exporters' Association, greeted the announcement of the CTS as "another opportunity for Jamaican companies to access much needed assistance," and anticipates its speedy implementation.
"(It is) a much-needed initiative... to promulgate the real meaning of the CSME," added James Moss-Solomon, vice-president of the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce.
At yesterday's ceremony, both Port-of-Spain and Kingston expressed hope that the trade support initiative will address the trade imbalance between T&T and the rest of the CARICOM. The oil-exporting country accounts for 74 per cent of Jamaica's CARICOM imports and receives approximately 14.3 per cent of Jamaica's exports to the region. Jamaica, on the other hand, accounted for approximately eight per cent of Trinidad and Tobago's global exports in 2002.
