CASTRIES, St Lucia, CMC – The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) says it has launched the development of an integrated regional private sector trade facilitation and engagement strategy aimed at advancing strategic solutions that lower transaction costs and improve the capacity of the private sector in the sub-region.

It said trade facilitation, trade engagement and competitiveness are at the forefront of the regional integration plans of the OECS and that consultant, Dr Claudius Preville, has been contracted to develop the strategy.

As a part of his engagement, he will be conducting consultations with national and regional private sector stakeholder bodies, including the chambers of commerce, national private sector associations, and the OECS Business Council to obtain their views and aspirations regarding expectations of the national, regional and international trade policies which govern and regulate their participation in the global marketplace, the St Lucia-based OECS Commission said.

In addition, he will be engaging national and regional trade policy makers such as Barbados-based Caribbean Export Development Agency and other relevant decision-making bodies to garner their views on modern and appropriate competitiveness strategies to strengthen and deepen the integration of the sub-region into economically viable value chains and the wider global economy.

The OECS Commission said that the project is a part of several initiatives being conducted under the ACP TradeCom II Programme that was launched in 2019.

“Consolidating the OECS Economic Union through Sustainable Trade Capacity Building” (STCB). Through the joint contributions of the European Union Europe Aid Grants Programme and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), the total budget of the project is 3.6 million Euros (One Euro=US$1.29 cents) is being disbursed through the EU-ACP TradeCom II Rapid Response Facility Programme,” the OECS Commission stated.

The overall objective of the programme is to assist the OECS member states and the OECS Commission to advance the implementation of the OECS Economic Union.

The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts-Nevis, Anguilla and the British Virgin islands.