Grenada explores options for export development

29 May 2015
News

The Government of Grenada is working with the Commonwealth Secretariat to explore ways of boosting the country’s export potential.

The Government of Grenada is working with the Commonwealth Secretariat to explore ways of boosting the country’s export potential.

Representatives from the private sector, public sector agencies, civil society and academia are meeting in St. Georges, Grenada between 28-29 May for an Export Development Stakeholder Consultation. They will debate findings from the official review of Grenada’s National Export Strategy (NES) 2006-2011 and consider strategic options for future export development.

Grenada’s first NES prioritised the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, and tourism and non-tourism services. Cross-cutting issues that affect all of the prioritised sectors were also included, such as business competency, transport and logistics, quality management and trade finance.

Yinka Bandele, Adviser in the Trade Division at the Secretariat said: “Established and emerging vision leaders from the business community have an important role to play in advocating for the export priorities and interventions that they envisage will make the biggest difference in transforming Grenada’s export sector.

She added: “The Commonwealth Secretariat is committed to providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Economic Development, Planning, Trade and Cooperatives, through Phase II of the project which may facilitate the development of a second NES. We hope that this will support the government’s vision of boosting its export sector and improving the global competitiveness of Grenada’s markets.”

The consultation is part of the Grenada Export Development Project, which launched in November 2014. It reviewed the design and implementation of the first NES to identify lessons learnt and examine factors which may have contributed to its underperformance. The recently finalised NES Review Report and the Strategic Export Options paper will be presented and vigorously debated at the two day meeting.