Vacca, The Greater Caribbean This Week

Changes in the international arena and the new dynamics of economic events emerge as a challenge that companies producing strategies for international insertion find difficult to surmount.

In a world in which survival depends on response, speed and creativity, companies must create aggressive mechanisms in order to compete in an open market.

This need having been identified, Business Forums appear as a tool permitting direct contact among companies having similar or complementary interests for the conduct of business.

Business Forums have become one of the most efficient trade instruments in promoting regional trade, making it possible, among other things, to enter into contact with a large number of entrepreneurs in a short space of time and in a clearly defined geographic space, promote the participating company, identify new providers, purchasers and partners, as well as identify current trends and needs in the international market.

The ability to convene forums creates numerous business opportunities for participants, which will contribute in the medium term to the expansion of trade and investment among the countries of the Caribbean Basin.

In view of the reality facing the Caribbean sub-region, in which there exists significant asymmetries, owing to the differences in size of the economies and the low level of reciprocal trade exchanges among the countries comprising it, which according to statistics is less than nine percent of global trade, the organization of business forums as an instrument to facilitate the integration of the countries, has become an excellent space from which we must benefit.

In this perspective, the Association of Caribbean States, in collaboration with the Trade Promoting Organizations of the region, has organized year after year the "Business Forum of the Greater Caribbean". This year, the "5th Business Forum of the Greater Caribbean" is organized in collaboration with the Center for Export and Investment of the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD), and is carded for October 26 to 28 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

This initiative aims at promoting trade in the Greater Caribbean region through the organization of business meetings over a two-day period, thereby creating new and valuable opportunities for exporters and importers attending the event, who shall have an advantage over their competitors by finding new opportunities for business and trade relations.

This forum will be a multisectoral event to be attended by entrepreneurs from the entire region, an ideal space to strengthen trade links with more than 28 countries, as well as a unique opportunity to gain access to potential markets that have been unexplored by entrepreneurs.

In order to benefit from the opportunities provided by the conduct of these forums, there is need for joint efforts among official and private entities, so that events of this nature would have the expected results and facilitate improved competitiveness, as well as the insertion of the companies of the region into the international market.

Ms. Paola Andrea Vacca is the Trade Adviser of the Association of Caribbean States. The views expressed are not necessarily the official views of the ACS. Feedback can be sent to mail@acs-aec.org

Also in this section:
Leis, What our newly inaugurated officials should do
Jackson, Things that Panama's Americans must decide
What they're saying about the attacks on Kerry's military record
Giuliani, Thank God George W. Bush is our president
Aldredge & Kelley, Protests at the Republican National Convention
Thomas & Thomas, SouthCom's contortions to define its role
Human Rights Watch, The Guantanamo military tribunals
Vacca, The Greater Caribbean This Week
Bolivarians, About the pardons of Cuban terrorists
Bernal, Where is the University of Panama going?

opinion

Business forums: instrument aimed at facilitating trade expansion among the countries of the Caribbean