The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Caribbean export agency yesterday said it is seeking to partner with the Government to enable The Bahamas’ cultural and creative industries to fulfill their true economic potential.

Deodat Maharaj, the Caribbean Export Development Agency’s (CEDA) executive director, told Tribune Business his organisation is focusing on the so-called “orange economy” as its top priority in The Bahamas.

CEDA’s approach dovetails with the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) Blueprint for Change election manifesto, which emphasised the need to grown and monetise sectors in the orange economy such as the performing and visual arts.

To further these objectives, Mr Maharaj said he yesterday met with Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, to discuss how CEDA and the Government can work together to make the creative sectors more lucrative for Bahamian businesses.

He added: “I met with Mr Halkitis and we spoke about how CEDA can support the Bahamas in the area of trade, investment and supporting business where it matters the most - on the ground. Help them export more and do better, and create jobs and opportunities for Bahamian business people.

“We work in three areas. The first is investment promotion, and our job is to steer investments our way to the Caribbean. The second area that we work on is to help promote and export Caribbean products to overseas markets like the European markets, taking advantage of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) that we have with the EU. The third is in the area of services.”

Apart from tourism, Mr Maharaj said The Bahamas’ rich culture and creativity - as well as that of the wider Caribbean - can be developed for economic exploitation. “For example, in Trinidad and Tobago, it is famous for calypso, and in Jamaica they have reggae. In The Bahamas, the creativity here is amazing,” he added.

“We are keen as well to support The Bahamas in helping translate some of your artists from being an artist for the time of Junkanoo to being a business person. So, with the minister, we spoke about three things: Investment promotion and how we can support the Bahamas in attracting investment; export promotion and development, and how we can take some of your business people who are exporting - or who want to export and have the potential to export - and sensitise them to the market requirements of the EU; and lastly the area of services and how we can provide support to the creative sector, also known as the orange economy, to generate jobs and opportunities for people in The Bahamas.”

Mr Maharaj’s predecessor focused more on financial services, but Mr Maharaj said CEDA had switched its agenda to “focus on tourism-related services, and on the orange economy and creative sector.”

CEDA is also promoting its grant facility, which opens on October 22 to companies from all countries in the Caribbean. This will allow any business within the Caribbean to apply for up to 40,000 euros in grant funding that will be paid in tranches to a successful applicant.

The grant facility has been adjusted so that companies are no longer required to make the inputs in their business, then send receipts to CEDA in order to be reimbursed. It is felt that this deterred multiple Bahamian businesses from applying historically.

“What we are doing is that this is a grant so they don’t have to pay it back. Secondly, we are doing tranches, where there will be a first tranche, a second and a third tranche. So there is no issue of them doing inputs in the first instance of what may have happened earlier,” said Mr Maharaj.