by Linda Straker
An advisory body was recently appointed to assist the Ministry of Trade with developing a revised Export Strategy, that will provide Grenada with not only market access but a market presence in regional and international markets. The document is scheduled to be presented to the Cabinet by July 2016.
Called the Core Design Team, the group which is described as a private-public partnership will focus on 6 priority areas. Besides providing advice for designing the strategy, the team will also play an instrumental role in the implementation and ongoing evaluation of the strategy. The Core Design Team will guide the development process of the National Export Strategy for the period 2016–2020.
Director of Trade, Junior Mahon, at the launch of the Core Design team last week Friday, explained that in moving forward one of the areas that the strategy will focus heavily on is the creative industry.
The other 5 areas are; Health and Wellness, Agriculture and Fisheries, Tourism, Professional Services, and the Maritime and Yachting sectors. Following 2 days of consultation with various groups in the sector, 6 persons were named to be champions who will lead the way with stakeholders in the sectors, to develop the various sub-components that will make the strategy a working document for those who are developing products or services for the export market.
The strategy will identify priority sectors to boost Grenada’s export for revenue generation and employment creation over the next 5 years. In addition, the strategy will emphasize and fill the essential role of tracking and measuring the implementation progress through public-private partnership.
The Government is developing the strategy with the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat. Trade Advisor from the Secretariat Ms Yinka Bandelle and Dr Claudius Preville from Preville & Associates Consulting Group were in Grenada, with other experts facilitating the consultations.
Bandelle told the Design Team that the intervention will help boost Grenada’s export sector, and thus they should see it themselves as visionaries.
