Saint Lucia Commissions the Development of New National Export Development Strategy
Left to Right: Mr. Alberto Amurgo Pacheco, Lead ITC Consultant, Ms. Olga Khomula, ITC Consultant, Titus Preville, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, Jacqueline Emmanuel-Flood, CEO of TEPA.
The Government of Saint Lucia through the Trade Export Promotion Agency (TEPA) has secured and received assistance from the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva to prepare a new National Export Development Strategy (NEDS).
In order to devise a unified vision and strategic plan, the NEDS development approach will bring together all relevant ministries, trade support institutions, and a wide cross section of public and private sector entities to provide input on various ways in which the island’s trade competitiveness can be enhanced. The objective is to create a dynamic export development action plan that evolves with economic changes and country priorities. The plan will provide a roadmap of activities to address St Lucia main supply-side, business environment and market entry constraints while building on existing opportunities.
Ms. Olga Khomula, ITC Consultant addressing stakeholders
Phase One of the NEDS development approach was initiated last month with a one week visit to Saint Lucia by a two-member ITC team delegation—Mr Alberto Pacheo (lead consultant) and Ms Olga Khomula.
From January 24th to 31st the ITC delegation conducted an initial assessment of Saint Lucia’s existing development program; facilitated a NEDS training workshop and met with various stakeholder agencies which are integral to Saint Lucia’s export development effort.
The two-day NEDS training workshop was attended by TEPA’s technical staff and public sector trade stakeholders. Participants were exposed to four main training modules:
- Requirements and Governance;
- Diagnostic tools;
- Designing a national export strategy;
- and Implementation and monitoring.
Meanwhile a two-day National Stakeholder Consultation was held from January 30th to 31st at the Royal by Rex Resorts. This stakeholder consultation sought to appraise the national community of NEDS and to rally their support and commitment to actively participate in the design and implementation of NEDS.
A National Core Committee comprising relevant stakeholders from the public and private sector has since been formed to oversee, advise and direct the National Export Strategy team in formulation of this strategy. Further a national Consultative Team has also been formed to provide counterpart technical support to the ITC Consultants. This consultative team comprises representatives from TEPA, the Private and Public Sectors including the Ministries of Economic Development, Finance and Commerce.
