The Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) has announced its development of an online registry for suppliers of Caribbean-based services.
The move represents an expansion of the agency's CE-Intelligence Portal and is expected to facilitate trade in the services sector.
Referencing the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Caribbean Export said that internationally, in many developing States, services exports rapidly grew between 2005 and 2018 at a rate of 7.6 per cent annually. Additionally, the direct contribution of the sector to exports in developing countries grew from 14 to 17 per cent between 2005 and 2018. The services sector also offers significant opportunities in terms of increased exports which can enhance the competitiveness of the region and stimulate economic development, it said.
Caribbean Export said too, that figures from the International Trade Centre (ITC) show that CARIFORUM exports of services amounted to over US$100 million over the period 2014-2018.
"Despite the importance of services, many CARIFORUM states are yet to fully explore its potential," said S H Allyson Francis, services specialist at Caribbean Export.
“This is an important and fast-moving sector with services businesses contributing on average approximately 69 per cent of GDP in CARIFORUM States, providing many new opportunities,” she added.
“The registry will allow Caribbean Export to have greater knowledge of the actors in the sector for business-to-business linkages and better craft interventions for technical and capacity building in the services sector. Our hope is that the CE Services Registry will serve as a pooled data source for the CARIFORUM Services Sector,” Francis explained.
She added that the online platform was a response to the fact that there was previously no central location for people to find services providers in the Caribbean.
The CE Services Registry enables those seeking services to easily search and find services providers by location, professional accreditation and industry. Further, it presents services providers with a suite of useful resources to support them to trade their services across borders with export guides, information on trade laws and trade agreements.
“We recognise that the success of the registry relies on the quality of the information and service providers listed. We are working with our partners to reach those providers in country and once we have a critical mass we will embark on a promotional campaign so that it becomes the 'go-to' space to find service providers in the Caribbean," said Francis.
Whilst the CE Services Registry is available for all CARIFORUM based services providers to register, Caribbean Export has initially partnered with the Coalition of Services Providers in Barbados, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines and Trinidad & Tobago.
Services providers may visit and register at http://services.ceintelligence.com/ in order to increase recognition and visibility, discover new collaborations or partnership and potentially gain more clients through the sites increased promotion.