GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – THE Assistant Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Irwin LaRocque, yesterday said that despite receiving a significant amount of funds under the “Aid for Trade” programme, the region has not been able to attract funds for building productive capacity.

Addressing a World Trade Organization (WTO) regional forum on Aid for Trade for the Caribbean here, LaRocque said that the region had received about US$310 million between 2006 and 2010, with approximately US$220 million in the pipeline so far for the next five years.

“But when we look behind the figures, it suggests that a substantial amount of these flows have been provided for “trade policy and regulation”, and “trade development”. Other categories such as “trade-related infrastructure” and “building productive capacity” do not feature prominently enough,” he told the delegates.

“It was with this in mind that the Conference of Heads of Government decided there must be a focused regional approach to Aid for Trade and that the major Aid for Trade projects developed by the region should be transformational in nature and positively impact the greatest possible number of people in the Caribbean Community.

“In this regard, our Heads also agreed that priority should be given to developing project proposals in the areas of Maritime Transport and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), with particular reference to facilitating competitiveness, the delivery of exports, and the re-engineering of the region’s productive capacity,” he said.

The CARICOM Secretariat is collaborating with the WTO and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in the organising the event and LaRocque said the forum presents a valuable opportunity for representatives from CARICOM, regional and sub-regional organisations, the private sector and international development partners to take stock of the experience with Aid for Trade to date.

He said it also provides an opportunity to share perspectives on how the region’s experience with Aid for Trade can be enhanced leading up to the Third Global Review of Aid for Trade scheduled for July this year.

According to LaRocque, a WTO publication noted that “Aid for Trade is about assisting developing countries to increase exports of goods and services, to integrate into the multilateral trading system, and to benefit from liberalised trade and increased market access.”

He said that the WTO Task Force on Aid for Trade has broken down Aid for Trade into six categories including trade policy and regulations; trade development; trade-related infrastructure, building productive capacity, trade-related adjustment, and other trade related needs.

But he said he has since been advised that the telecommunication category should be expanded to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), since the technology has gone well beyond telecommunications.

LaRocque said that the Caribbean has already embraced a Draft ICT Strategy, a definition where ICT includes telecoms.

LaRocque said that while at both the national and regional levels, the region may have got off to a slow start on developing approaches to Aid for Trade, much has been achieved over the last 18 months.

“I wish to acknowledge the launch of its Aid for Trade Strategy by Belize just last Friday and to commend the effort by Jamaica to develop its strategy with the support of the IDB. I wish to urge other member states to consider similar approaches to those of Belize and Jamaica,” he said.

The CARICOM official also praised the European Union for assisting the region in being prepared for the Aid-for-Trade project.

He said it has been the major contributor, with a preliminary estimate of US$244 million between 2006 and 2009.

“The EU has also reinforced its commitment to the region, through the undertakings in respect of Aid-for-Trade flows as set out in the Declaration on Development Cooperation annexed to the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement.

“Other donors such as Canada, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth Secretariat/TradeCom Facility and IDB/WTO accounted for some US$46 million over the same period,” he said.

But laRocque said that he did not want the Aid- for-Trade strategy is without challenges.

“The fact that only two of our states have formally embarked on development of strategies could be reflective of those challenges.

“I would like the international development partners present to take note of some of the challenges and concerns that countries in our region have to address. This listing is neither exhaustive nor reflective of an order of priority,” he added.