April 2014

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 Caribbean Energy Matrix

Compete Caribbean Approves USD5.3M Year-To-Date


In the first four months of 2014, Compete Caribbean has approved 15 projects worth USD5.3M across its three components - Knowledge Management, Business Climate Reform and the Enterprise Innovation Challlenge Fund (EICF).

This is quite an accomplishment as compared with 25 projects with a value of USD7.3M approved for the complete year of 2013.
The approved projects are in: Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Guyana, Haiti, Grenada, Suriname, Barbados and St. Lucia.

They span a diverse portfolio of sectors and topics including: Tourism, investment attraction, business facilitation, potable water, environment, manufacturing, renewable energy, maritime, telecommunications, agriculture and creative industries.

All Compete Caribbean projects must help the Program achieve across the region an increase in employment, export diversification; and,  improved doing business rankings, public-private dialogue, business environment, global competitiveness and GDP growth.
What's Happening in the OECS

Broadband Diagnosis and Infrastructure Maps in the OECS:

This project will finance a study to map the current infrastructure in the OECS countrires in order to support the design of national broadband strategies and other relevant telecommunications initiatives.  

 

Compete Caribbean will organize a workshop to present this project and intends to mobilize the investor community to take advantage of the knowledge generated in order to increase foreign direct investment in the tele-commmunications sector in the OECS.

 

Harmonized OECS Spectrum Planning and Management Project:

 

Project approved under the Business Climate and Competitiveness Enhancement Facility in April.  

 

This project will support the OECS participation in the regional harmonization of spectrum planning and management policies across the Caribbean.  

 

It is expected that this project will improve the quality and access of mobile broadband in the region, and it will be executed with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) as a counterpart.     

 

Projects: Dominica & Grenada

Dominica:

Compete Caribbean is providing support to Invest Dominica Authority (IDA) for the implementation of the updated investment strategy to increase foreign direct investment in the tourism and business processing outsourcing (BPO) sectors. 

 

Grenada:

Geo-tourism in Grenada: Compete Caribbean is providing technical assistance to the Hotel Cluster of Grenada represented by the Grenada Hotel and Tourism Association.

 

This project will support the implementation of the Grenada Geo-tourism Destination Management Plan which includes marketing with strong social media presence to re-brand and promote Grenada as a Geo-tourism Destination.  

 

Protein From Waste and Local Crops - The Grenada Project: This project will provide technical assistance and equipment for a rendering plant that will produce chicken feed from discarded fish offal, brewers spent and other organic waste.  

 

This project also contemplates the utilization of waste oil in an effort to alleviate one of Grenada's biggest environmental problems. Ultimately, the objective of the project is to demonstrate the viability of small scale protein rendering for animal feed supplementation, utilizing locally available organic and fuel wastes.
Caribbean Growth Forum (CGF)
As a follow up to the Caribbean Growth Forum (CGF) national chapters, Compete Caribbean approved ten consultancies to facilitate the implementation of high priority reforms regionally; these are grant resources funding short term consultancies valuing no more than USD50,000.

The consultancies emanated from deliberation of the CGF national chapters. The CGF is a transparent and inclusive process of public policy-making, aimed at developing road maps for reforms to chart a path of growth for the region.

It is expected that these short-term consultancies will contribute to the institutional strengthening of eight national institutions regionally; and the formulation of eight sets of recommendations/draft reforms.

 

The following are the consultancies which are underway:
  • Antigua and Barbuda - The design of the "One Stop Shop" Antigua and Barbuda Investment Authority (ABIA) which would allow for more efficient registration and execution of investment facilitation services, which is expected to increase foreign direct investment inflows to increase employment opportunities
  • Bahamas -  Creation of a manual and online portal for the Bahamas Investment Association (BIA) to provide information and guidance to both local and foreign investors
  • Barbados - Strengthening of the Immigration Department to both increase border security and promote national development and economic growth. Immigration plays a significant role in facilitating investment, business and commerce
  • Dominica - Review of investment incentives and drafting of a tourism incentives development bill aligned with World Trade Organisation (WHO) principles and rules
  • Grenada - Supporting  private sector development through the increase in value-added capacity of the agri-business sector in Grenada
  • Jamaica - A mapping and re-engineering of the planning approval, monitoring and enforcement process for developing applications; and, a mapping of all microfinance institutions, both public and private, to identify and rationalize the types of financing and capacity building programmes provided for MSMEs
  • St. Kitts and Nevis - Execution of a gap analysis of St. Kitts & Nevis ' performance under the World Bank Doing Business Report and a reform action plan 
  • St. Lucia - The blueprint for the establishment of a commercial court   
  • Suriname - Consultancy to support the development of a framework for secured transactions regime 
St. Vincent and The Grenadines implemented its first CGF Accountability Workshop of the SVG National Chapter, reporting candidly on progresses and delays in the implementation of the CGF National Action Plan that was agreed upon by all stakeholders last year during a public event.  
 
Implementation of CGF reforms started in September 2013 and the report took stock of progresses until March 30, 2014. A second Accountability Workshop is expected to take place in October 2014 to review the first year into implementation. This is the fourth country realizing an Accountability Workshop using the CGF methodology. Click For More 

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