Vice-president of export at the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (Jampro) Robert Scott has sought to dispel rumours that Trinidad and Tobago is bad for business.

He reasoned that the country has instead welcomed Jamaican businesses with open arms for the second staging of its export development programme, Export Max.As part of the agency’s strategy to develop Jamaican exporters and increase export to regional markets, Jampro will lead 18 companies on export promotion missions to Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and The Bahamas.The Caribbean Market Mission, dubbed Export Max II, will begin on June 18, 2017 in Barbados and end on June 30, 2017 in The Bahamas.“People say that it’s difficult to do business with Trinidad, but I’ll tell you that we got a very warm reception in Trinidad; it was phenomenal. There was no difficulty arranging meetings; they came on time and we even came back with far more leads than we expected,” Scott told exporters during the launch of Jampro’s Caribbean Market Mission on Monday. The event was held at the trade and invest corporation’s head office.He added that since the visit to Trinidad, Jampro has since contacted companies who were not a part of the mission to say there is an opportunity here.“I’m a little bit excited because I saw possibilities where none existed before. They do have need for pharmaceutical products; there is actually a tender for those products. These are things that we didn’t know before, we went into the market, we recognised what the opportunity was and we also found out particular useful players that can help us to get into that market.”He reckons that the scoping mission was a success and has no doubt that the companies selected to go into the three markets will have no less than a phenomenal experience.Export Max II is a three-year initiative geared towards providing focused capacity building and market penetration support for exporting and export-ready firms. Last year, the initiative saw 15 companies participating, but Jampro has increased the numbers to 20 this year.The mission will give companies the opportunity to promote brand Jamaica in the region and increase the export of Jamaican products to regional markets. The companies will have scheduled business meetings with buyers to promote their products, execute trade visits to key retail outlets, and have key discussions with private and public sector partners to garner market intelligence.The Caribbean Market Mission will support Export Max’s goal of increasing overall exports for the participating companies by 50 per cent.Participating companies are Crimson Dawn manufacturing Co Ltd, Dawson Trading Company Ltd, R&D Commercial Holdings, Free Foam Factory Ltd, Grace Agro-Processors, Jamaica Drip Irrigation Ltd, Triple C Manufacturing, Boss Furniture, Carita Jamaica Ltd, Country House Products, Country Traders and JABEXCO Ltd, Best Dressed Foods, King Pepper Products Ltd, Southside Distributors Ltd, AG Chem Plant Ltd and Very Amazing Products Ltd.The Export Max programme is executed in partnership with the Development Bank of Jamaica, HEART Trust/NTA, Scotiabank and the Jamaica Productivity Centre.