Caribbean Export promotes orange economy in Kenya

• December 15 2019
• http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sunday-finance/caribbean-export-promotes-orange-economy-in-kenya_182002

The Caribbean Export Development Agency at the recently held 9th African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) Summit of Heads of State and Government focused on raising the profile of the Caribbean's orange economy (also known as the creative economy), exchanging best practices, innovation and cultivating relations.

At the summit held from December 9-10, the regional export entity staged a fashion showcase in collaboration with the ACP Secretariat where 80 designers from 20 countries of the Caribbean, the Pacific and Africa presented under the patronage of Mia Amor Mottley, prime minister of Barbados.

Mottley stressed the importance of initiatives such as this to the promotion and popularisation of creatives in order to raise capital and investment for their businesses.

“We hope that we can create the logistical framework that will allow the trading to take place so that we don't only marvel at the beauty of the designs, but we can ensure that the economics that will support the sale of the designs can make the businesses sustainable,” she said.

“We now need to popularise it and we now need to ensure that access to working capital is always there for our artists, because for most artists they don't have the collateral to go and access funding from the banks in order to be able to expand production,” she added.

Caribbean Export Officer in Charge Anthony Bradshaw lauded the initiatives as good participating ventures, critical to the growth and development of his company.

“We have to ensure that the Caribbean is well positioned within the African, Caribbean, and Pacific grouping and that the great contribution the region's private sector is making towards our economic development is not only recognised and acknowledged, but also supported by legislative frameworks,” he stated.