Export Max III to provide strong support for MSMEs

Chief executive officer of the Jamaica Business Development Corporation(JBDC) Valerie Viera has commended the strong corporate bonds for Export Max III, which will be undertaken in partnership with the Jamaica Manufacturers' and Exporters' Association (JMEA) and Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) to provide capacity building for micro, small-, and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs).

The successor programme to Expo Max II (2014) and Expo Max I (2011) will run for three years, during which it will deliver a programme of customised services to at least 50 exporters representing key non-traditional export products. The overarching goal is to position them to be globally competitive in order to access market opportunities.

"This collaboration is an example of how we in Jamaica should work together because no one institution or person has all the skills or the information, and until we start putting the egos behind the door and working together, we not going to move," she told yesterday's official launch at the Spanish Court Hotel, New Kingston.

"So we are celebrating from JBDC the kind of collaboration that we have agreed to have between our agencies, and it's a good move, and we know success is going to be on the way."

The areas being targeted under the programme are agro-processing, manufacturing, and services in the following broad categories:

- Food - processed and manufactured;

- Non-food such as castor oil, chemicals, and cosmetics;

- Services - film, animation, education, music, and information-enabled services.

VERY STRATEGIC APPROACH

The companies must be able to obtain certificates of origin as required for their destination markets, and Viera is confident that the mentoring that will be provided by two state agencies and the private-sector group will prove to be a winning combination.

"In this phase, there is a main focus on the MSME sector, which is why I am so happily involved. I think it is very important because it means there is recognition that this is a component of our development that needs to be encouraged and supported. The creativity, the innovation, this is where we are going to get it from. So we need to really support them because you have bright people coming out, highly trained with great ideas, but they need the business support to move to the export market, so it's very important," Viera told The Gleaner.

"JAMPRO, of course, is the expert on exports. We would want to say we're the expert on business development, and, of course, the JMEA on advocacy. There are some things that as government agencies we cannot do, so we need the advocacy from JMEA and the mentorship from JAMPRO. So it's very important that they have come on board in a fulsome way as well. It's a very strategic approach."

christopher.serju@gleanerjm.com