The International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) have announced that they are scaling up their partnership to strengthen support for businesses across the Caribbean Region. The announcement was made by CDB President, Dr. William Warren Smith and ITC Executive Director, Arancha González during a meeting at CDB’s headquarters in Bridgetown, Barbados on July 27.>

During the meeting, Smith and González signed a partnership agreement, which confirms ITC as one of CDB’s key partners for the implementation of trade-led development projects in the Caribbean Region. While having collaborated on a number of projects for several years, it is the first time that the two organisations have formalised a partnership agreement.

“This agreement represents the ITC and CDB’s shared vision for sustainable economic development in the Bank's Borrowing Member Countries. Through this framework, we look forward to working collaboratively with ITC to implement innovative projects that will boost competitiveness and productivity, especially for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises,” said Dr. Smith. 

ITC Executive Director, Arancha González said: “CDB has a track record of investing in projects that have an impact on people and businesses across the Caribbean. With this agreement ITC and CDB will be able to ensure that more micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are empowered to realise their potential and tap into regional and global value chains.”

As a first step in the new partnership, the two organisations will explore and identify priority sectors and priority countries for interventions. Previous collaboration between ITC and CDB has resulted in successful projects in several countries and has covered areas including agriculture. One such example is the creation of a Trade Information Portal for The Bahamas, which has enabled exporters to better take advantage of opportunities in foreign markets.