The Caribbean Export Development Agency in cooperation with the European Union is working with the Saint Lucia Trade Promotions Agency (TEPA) to sensitize the local business community on the Direct Assistance Grant Scheme (DAGS).
As a part of its sensitization drive, the agencies hosted a one-day proposal writing workshop for Businesses and Business Support Organizations to increase the awareness and understanding of accessing the Direct Assistance Grant Scheme.
CEO of TEPA Sunita Daniel gave some insight into TEPA’s role within the programme.
“Caribbean Export is here to let clients know about the Direct Assistance Grant Scheme available to them. You know that most of our businesses have quite a bit of difficulty accessing finance; the grant scheme would be our system in accessing export markets, which is what TEPA is really concerned about. So TEPA will be supporting those businesses in terms of preparing the proposals in terms of making sure that they are eligible to access this grant from Caribbean Export.”
Chris McNair of the Caribbean Export Agency highlighted that the programme’s ultimate focus is aiding export businesses that find it hard to obtain financial backing.
“The DAGS is a programme that we have at Caribbean Export, it falls under our access to finance umbrella. The idea behind the programme is to provide direct financial assistance to exporting firms across the region. Now we understand that that is one of the biggest constraints that exporting firms face in the CARIFORUM region, that is getting access to appropriate financing. I say appropriate because what you might find is different companies at different stages of development may require different types of funding mechanisms. So a more developed company, a medium to large company may choose to do debt as they have access to commercial lending, commercial borrowing to finance their expansion and growth. Companies at a smaller scale may not have that facility as they may not have the collateral to guarantee the kind of loan that is required. So the scheme is there to provide the capital injection in companies that have a unique opportunity to export and to develop their export capacity.”
He added that Caribbean Export were now working to ensure that those who need to be made aware of the programme received the relevant information.
“Right now we are going through the various countries, we are going through different trainings and workshops, meeting with various companies, meeting with business support agencies like TEPA who are a fantastic partner for us in Saint Lucia and they have always been, to see how we can build capacity at a local level so that we can meet some of the concerns and address questions that firms may have about the programme.”
The workshop was held at the Bay Gardens resort on April 9.
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