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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados -- A regional export marketing conference was held last week in Barbados following the completion of a series of 12 Export Marketing and ProNET workshops carried out across the region by GIZ in partnership with the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) and local Business Support Agencies (BSOs).

Over 100 businesses have been trained to date and 50 stakeholders including international training consultants met for two days (November 2-3) to discuss the future of the programme and its custodianship in the region.

Caribbean Export and GIZ are committed to improving the business skills of SMEs as Export Marketing and ProNET training workshops are major vehicles to be used to generate increased productivity and competitiveness in the region. In keeping with the institutional goal of enhancing private sector development to create an enabling environment for businesses the ‘Building Regional Capacity for Export’ Conference brought together key stakeholders and importantly BSOs with whom Caribbean Export has partnered to drive the workshops in their respective SME markets.

The involvement of BSOs such as Barbados Small Business Association is critical to the success of the programme in driving the workshops in sectors such as manufacturing that can make a real difference to the overall regional capacity for export. Additionally there has been a train the trainer element which has developed a pool of trainers (currently 35) in CARIFORUM member states with the goal of handing over the training programmes to BSOs to deliver the training to the SMEs with support from Caribbean Export.

Ensuring regional firms are export ready and in the position to take advantage of the opportunities under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is one of the objectives for Caribbean Export.

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