By: Staff Writer
October 19, 2021
There is up to $45k per business in grant funding from the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA), but the focus is particularly in the orange economy and creative sector says the agency’s executive director.
Deodat Maharaj, told Caribbean Magazine Plus while on visit to The Bahamas that the focus in its three year strategic plan has be and will be on the “orange economy and creative sector.”
Mr Maharaj also said: “The new strategic plan that we have for the region is that we really want to focus on the orange economy or the creative sector.”
For businesses that want to access grants from CEDA they can do so when the grant application process opens on October 22, 2021. Prospective applicants can go to CEDA’s website and download an application and send it back.
This year, CEDA is providing up to 40k in Euros to any business that meets its strategic focus this year. Mr Maharaj said: On October 22 we will be launching our call for grants. So the call for grants is for businesses across the CARIFORUM/Caribbean.
“This time, businesses can access a grant up to 40,000 Euros, which is a significant chunk of financing. Right up to 50 percent of that can be used for capital investments.”
Expressing confidence that CEDA can deliver region wide for exporting businesses, Mr Maharaj spoke about the recent successes that CEDA had with Guyana in agricultural technology. “We are perhaps the most food insecure region on the planet and we don’t have scale to mass produce food. Therefore what we need to do is leverage technology and get investments with respect to technology in agriculture,” he said.
He continued, “Two weeks ago at another initiative we got close to 600 investors in the ag-tech sector in a major ag-tech investment summit headlined by the president of Guyana in his capacity as lead head for agriculture in the CARICOM region.”
This ag-tech summit was preceded by a virtual investment summit for Guyana where 567 investors from over 41 countries were able to see what Guyana had to offer. This was one of CEDA’s investment promotion initiatives Mr Maharaj spoke about and it was successful that CEDA is planning to do a similar one for Trinidad and Tobago, the Trinidad and Tobago Investment Forum, scheduled for this November 2 and 3.
CEDA has remained steady and innovative throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, still delivering on initiatives it can while dealing with the COVID-19 internally as well as with their regional partners.