There’s no turning back for the Caribbean Export Developing Agency which outlined four key driver sectors for regional economic growth and transformation — green economy transition, agri-tech, e-commerce and digitisation, and transport and logistics — ahead of hosting Caribbean Investment Forum (CIF) 2022 early last month.

This according to Caribbean Export Executive Director Deodat Maharaj who, in an recent interview with Jamaica Observer, shared his own thoughts on CIF 2022 and the way forward for the regional trade and investment promotion agency.

CIF 2022 was the first hosting of the conference in a Caribbean Community (Caricom) member country. It took place from November 8–11 at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, under the theme ‘Building a Smarter, Greener Caribbean’.

While Caribbean Export did not expect a huge turnout for the first in-person staging of the event since the pandemic, especially given travel challenges between Caricom member states, Maharaj disclosed that “…we had over 600 people who were paying and we had to hold registration”.

Looking ahead in 2023, Maharaj said that the trade and investment agency is considering taking the conference to another Caricom member country such as Grenada or St Lucia.

When asked if the organisation will continue focusing on the key drivers post-CIF 2022, Maharaj pointed out that, “My take is that in one year the priorities are not going to change.”

He stated further that priority industries were determined by research while preparing Caribbean Export’s strategic plan for 2021 to 2024.

“You get results by identifying priorities and working on them day in day out. We’re not going to do a flavour of the month approach, okay? So we have a script [and] we’re going to stick to that script …because I went publicly and said these factors will drive transformation, and I said that on the morning of the 9th of November 2022,” he continued.

In defending Caribbean Export’s position, Maharaj noted that the organisation did not choose tourism as a leading driver of transformation because the region is already reaping the benefits of that sector’s successes. He pointed out, however, that global shocks such as the coronavirus pandemic and the 9/11 attacks in the USA have indicated that the Caribbean needs to identify “complementary sectors to create jobs and opportunities for people”.

Pointing to proof that banks and financial institutions are interested in growth outside of the tourism sector, the head of Caribbean Export shared that the Inter-American Development Bank and CAF Development Bank of Latin America were present at CIF 2022 offering concessional financing for green economy projects.

“So Republic Bank [of Trinidad and Tobago], the largest indigenous bank in the Caribbean, they were one of our sponsors [of the conference], but they’re very much into this green financing… I didn’t know that some of the indigenous bank like Republic, they actually had funding for it,” Maharaj told Caribbean Business Report.

“So that was like a big thing and that resonated well — the projects and the fact that you have banks willing to lend to private sector,” he added.

While CIF 2022 did focus in some ways on policy, Maharaj outlined that the focus was on having businesses interact with other businesses. As a result, some 272 B2B meetings were held during the trade show, and the Caribbean Export executive director said he believes this could be more due to interactions during lunch and cocktail events.

Responding to a query on the estimation of deal flow, Maharaj said, “What we know is there were a lot of bilateral discussions. There’s a lot of interest in Guyana, a lot of interest in technology. We had maybe 300 [investors] coming from overseas.”

He added: “So we have to now talk with the investment promotion agencies to get feedback on the deals that actually are being concretised. Because there’s a big difference between having a meeting and people talking and something actually happening where we have an outcome.”

On this note, he said that a key takeaway from CIF 2022 was that the Caribbean has to be “more aggressive in identifying a good portfolio of projects”.

“Because investment promotion is much more than saying come to Jamaica or come to Barbados or come to Trinidad and Tobago. It’s about what are the big sectors and Jamaica is quite good at that. What are the priority sectors? Where are the projects and what the incentives are? What is the rate of return? And if you want me to build a hotel, where’s this hotel going to be located? Do you want me to bring a tech start-up? Do you have an EST innovation park or something? Do I rent? Do I get a shell building and what is on the offer? So investment promotion is much more than beach shed and taxes,” he explained.