News

Six companies from the Eastern Caribbean participated in the 4th edition of the TechBeach Retreat which took place in Montego Bay, Jamaica, from December 5-7 2019.

The two-day event brought together hundreds of participants including technology entrepreneurs from the Caribbean and North America, and 52 world class keynote speakers from multiple global companies like The New York Times, Forbes and Inc. Magazine, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Massy and Airbnb, among others.

The six participating technology companies from the Eastern Caribbean were: IslandTEK, eMagine Solutions Inc, Converge Solutions Inc, and Big Brother Technologies (based in Saint Lucia); and airZoon and Wimediacom (based in Martinique).

The mission was part of the INTERREG Trade Enhancement for the Eastern Caribbean (TEECA) project which is coordinated by the Chamber of Commerce of Martinique (CCI Martinique) along with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique and the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export).

The delegation was led by OECS Competitive Business Technical Specialist, Kwesi Roberts; and Special Advisor for Trade and Legal Affairs at the Caribbean Export Development Agency based in Barbados, Gayle Gollop.

This year, the TechBeach Retreat was sponsored by Google and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Participants had the opportunity to attend key presentations on the current state of innovation, entrepreneurship and disruptive technology in the region. The event also enabled the six entrepreneurs to participate in B2B meetings during which they had the opportunity to network with global players in the area of technology, access new products and services, and showcase innovations made in the Caribbean.

Co-Founder of TechBeach Retreat, Kirk-Anthony Hamilton, highlighted: “The event sought to foster collaboration among like minded individuals in the area of technology and strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. The nonhierarchical nature of the event allows people to meet tech leaders and exchange ideas in a relaxed environment”. Hamilton said.

Panel discussions, round tables and presentations were delivered on the following matters:

• The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Fifth Horizon;
• Life with Machines: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation;
• Blockchain Technology and Digital Assets;
• Cashless Societies: Scaling Fin-Tech Solutions to Mainstream Impact;
• Smart Infrastructure and the Future of Cities;
• Google Innovation and Reinvention: The Intelligent Enterprise and the Experience Economy;
• The Future of Work: Exploring the Technological Transformation of Industries;
• Cyber Security and the New Paradigm of Everyday Life;
• The Future of Health and Well-Being; and
• Entrepreneurship and Innovation within the Digital Revolution.

Participants also attended workshops for Start-Ups and Corporates on eGovernance, Scaling and Venture Capital.

This article was originally posted on St. Lucia News Online

Curacao is the newest country to launch an iGuide, or online investment guide, with the support of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export), the Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA), the European Union and the Ministry of Economic Development in Curacao.

The iGuide, launched on Monday, is an online repository of information on the opportunities and conditions for investment in Curacao. iGuides are a joint product of UNCTAD and the International Chamber of Commerce. 

Speaking at the launch event, President of CAIPA, Ms. Tessa Jacques noted, “This iGuide for Curacao, is the fourth one that we have launched in the Caribbean so far. We are very pleased to be working with UNCTAD and Caribbean Export for the development of eight iGuides for the Caribbean region. We have so far launched the iGuides for St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Jamaica, during the last three months.”

“We look forward to launching the iGuides for Barbados, St. Kitts & Nevis, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Trinidad & Tobago in 2020,” added Ms. Jacques.

The Minister for Economic Development of Curacao, Ms. Giselle McWilliam highlighted the significant benefit of the iGuide to Curacao, noting, “Curacao as a small island, needs to work hard and invest a lot to be captured and discovered by potential investors. We need to compete with other islands, cities, countries and continents. So, when UNCTAD offered us the opportunity to join the iGuide platform, we accepted immediately. Through such an important international organization like UNCTAD and [CAIPA], we are assured of broad coverage, to capture attention worldwide and regionally.”

This position was supported by the Executive Director of the Curaçao Investment & Export Promotion Agency (CINEX), Ramon Koffijerg, who said, “Many are already familiar with the Investment Guide of CINEX, where all the detailed information is available, online and in hard copy, explaining the investment benefits of Curacao. However, what makes the UNCTAD iGuide very special to us, is the value it carries given the endorsement of the United Nations. This not only adds the element of respect, trust and validity to the information we share, but more so expands our reach into networks we would not have been able to tap into. on our own, as a small island in the Caribbean.”

“Investors are reticent to invest without adequate information,” explained Suzette Hudson, Snr. Advisor, Investment Promotion, Caribbean Export, adding, “It is our hope to have iGuides developed for all the countries that we support as an Agency. In this way, we would have created information ‘one stop shops’ for investors, improving the business climate in the Caribbean by reducing the time and the costs that investors face in trying to secure information from various sources.”

The iGuide for Curacao can be found at:  https://www.theiguides.org/public-docs/guides/curacao

Caribbean small island developing states, or SIDs, were exposed to key strategies in attracting and facilitating investment into projects that seek to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), at a recent seminar titled: ‘Facilitating Investment in SDG-Projects’, held in St. Kitts from November 26-28.

The 17 SDGs, adopted in 2015 by the United Nations member states, are strategies focused on peace and prosperity, preservation of oceans and forests, and are also meant to end poverty. These strategies include improving health and education, reducing inequality and spurring economic growth.

Forty delegates attended the regional seminar which covered topics including the strengthening of value chains in the region to support the attainment of the SDGs, the importance of partnerships to achieve the goals, as well as the role of Special Economic Zones and innovative modalities of financing SDG projects. The importance of attracting investment that considers issues such as gender equality and linkages to the domestic economy were also covered, along with the relevance of international investment agreements to the Caribbean.

The seminar was hosted by the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export), secretariat for the Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA), in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the St. Kitts Investment Promotion Agency (SKIPA).

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Honourable Shawn Richards, noted that the Caribbean SIDs face significant challenges including vulnerability to exogenous shocks, climate change and the socio-economic impact of brain drain.

“Resilience building must…be our developmental priority as part of a multi-faceted plan that includes climate adaptation and economic diversification” the Deputy Prime Minister noted. He added “It makes sense therefore that the small island developing states of the Caribbean focus on attracting investments that do not increase our vulnerabilities or jeopardize the sustainable use of our natural resources.”

This position was supported by the President of CAIPA, Ms. Tessa Jacques, who indicated that, “It is the intention of CAIPA to play its part in ensuring that our members attract investment that will meet the needs of today, while safeguarding the ability of future Caribbean generations to meet their own needs.”

“Our Agency has…been at the forefront regionally in creating the partnerships needed to support the achievement of our sustainable development goals as a region” noted Ms. Jasemin Weekes, the St. Kitts and Nevis Board member for Caribbean Export, in reference to the cooperation forged with CAIPA and UNCTAD, among other regional and international agencies. “These relationships have strengthened our capacity to deliver on our mandate as an export and investment promotion agency and will support our achievement of the SDGs as a region.”

The event was deemed timely by UNCTAD, given the falloff by 32-percent in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to the Caribbean in 2018 relative to the previous year. Mr. Paul Wessendorp, Chief of the Investment Promotion Section in the Division on Investment and Enterprise at UNCTAD shared the findings of UNCTAD’s 2019 World Investment Report, that FDI in small island developing states “remains fragile and dependent on a few capital-intensive projects…in construction, as well as hotels and tourism”. Further, “FDI is the largest source of external finance for developing countries and as such, has the potential to create higher skilled employment, access to technology and international markets and can help achieve the SDGs. It is our aim to offer support to countries, in particular the SIDs given their special vulnerabilities, in the attraction and facilitation of projects that will meet their SDGs. We are particularly pleased to have worked with Caribbean Export and CAIPA in making this event a reality.”

The 3-day event welcomed 40 key delegates from across the region and saw the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between CAIPA and the Caribbean Agribusiness Association to forge relations to collaborate for the attraction of investment into the high-tech agriculture sector.

The seminar ended with the hosting of the CAIPA Annual General Assembly, which focused the attention of the Caribbean investment promotion agencies on the continued collaboration with UNCTAD, the definition of a CAIPA 2020 work plan and the development of a financial sustainability strategy for the Association.

The event was funded by the European Union under the 11th European Development Fund Regional Private Sector Development Programme and UNCTAD.

Participating countries included: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The billion-dollar Global music industry has changed rapidly over the past 10 years alone.  Some may argue that the digital age has made it that much more accessible with social media platforms supporting artist and new music discovery.  However, the introduction of streaming shook up the industry causing adaptation and change to enable artists capitalise through the monetize digital music.  

YouTube along with other social media platforms has birthed stars allowing unknown artists to reach parts of the world they couldn’t imagine and creating a demand or following for their music long before any record label picked them up.  But how do artists get discovered online?  And how can the Caribbean musicians leverage digital platforms to export their music globally?

These are some of the questions the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) is attempting to answer with its Business of Music (BOM) programme.  “Understanding of the digital music industry is imperative if an artist is going to succeed and the Business of Music training programme aims to build the capacity of artists, managers, producers and those involved in the music industry” informed Allyson Francis, Services Specialist at Caribbean Export.

Since 2017, the Agency has worked with Business Support Organisations (BSOs) specifically the Coalition on Services Industries (CSIs) from across the region to enable those involved in the industry to participate in BOM sessions via the online self-learning platform, and face to face workshops.  A  new dimension to this training was the instructor led webinars. Over 120 people have participated in these initiatives thus far and most recently, the Agency held a two-day workshop in collaboration with COSCAP (Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Inc.) and the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) and the ‘knowledge company’ Music Ally Ltd in Barbados.

The workshop welcomed twenty-three (23) participants from nine Caribbean countries who gained insight on topics such as the mystery of YouTube’s algorithm and how to optimise it; how to develop a lean and mean online campaign; how to leverage tools such as Chartmetric amongst others.  Participants also performed digital health checks to get a better understanding of how they or their artists are viewed online and increase their understanding of how their music can be discovered.

“This isn’t an age now where you can simply sit back and relax and hope that people get involved with you and your music simply by making music available.  You’ve got to be regularly interacting with people” stressed the CEO and Co-founder of Music Ally Ltd – Paul Brindley.

“You have to go where the music fan is so that means making sure that all of those channels are absolutely properly optimised, so your Youtube, Spotify, all the social media platforms and make sure they are all linked together” he continued.  “Make the music fans life as easy as possible and so think through the eyes of the music fan and think, how are they going to discover me?”

“Our managers, musicians, artists need to leverage the tools that are out there and do everything they can to increase their chances of being discovered” commented Francis.  “At Caribbean Export we are committed to providing the necessary support, but we can only take you so far.”

One participant from Saint Lucia Akeem Anderson, artist and producer from Onel Sound Productions summed up his experience, “The last two days have been nothing but beneficial.  The majority of us who have been in attendance are pretty much individuals who have gotten our feet wet already in the business and in the industry.  We’re getting some gigs, we’ve had some success, we have a little bit of notoriety.  However, the information that they’ve disseminated is going to allow us to chisel in our characteristics and our skills, honing in on our good qualities and strengths and maximise our resources however limited or expansive that they may be in to reaching not just a regional audience but also an international audience and getting the revenue we desire for our work and our intellectual property”.

The packaging and promotion of any product or service is critical to attract customers and gain sales.  The same is true for investment opportunities.  The Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export), in partnership with the Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) recently hosted a training workshop in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) focused on improving the quality of investment project information to make them more attractive to potential investors.

The 5-day training workshop was delivered by UNIDO with a focus on enhancing the capacity of the Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) to better identify investment opportunities, as well as the formulation and appraisal of investment projects. “The need of developing countries in upgrading local skills and capabilities in the preparation and appraisal of pre-investment studies, calls for appropriate capacity building support, including adequate human resource development,” notes Dr. Umesh Menon, UNIDO trainer for the workshop.

The 22 Caribbean participants from 16 Caribbean territories were trained in the use of the flagship software of UNIDO – Computer Model for Feasibility Analysis and Reporting (COMFAR III Expert- Basic Version). COMFAR facilitates the fast computation of financial statements needed for financial and economic appraisal of investment projects. The software can be used for small- to large-scale projects, expansion, rehabilitation and modernization of existing enterprises and joint ventures.

Commenting at the opening of the workshop, the Jr. Minister for Trade & Economic Development of the BVI, Sharie B. de Castro, shared that, “The BVI is in the process of establishing our Trade and Investment Promotion Agency. It is important to us to develop a core group of professionals who are well versed in investment project identification, preparation and appraisal. This will ultimately lead to well-planned investment projects and prudent investment decisions.”

“Caribbean Export is committed to enhancing the knowledge and skills of the IPAs of the Caribbean,” commented Suzette Hudson, Senior Advisor in Investment Promotion at the Agency. “This training forms part of a broader collaborative framework that CAIPA and UNIDO have established with the aim to provide investment monitoring and promotion support to IPAs in the region and strengthen regional investment promotion efforts.

The workshop was funded by the European Union via the 11^th European Development Fund, Regional Private Sector Development Programme and the European Development Fund/Intra-ACP Private Sector Development Facilities and Programmes.

Participating countries included: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos Islands.       

In 2009, Christal Oliver breathed life into her fashion accessory brand Olive Art Designs (OAD) as she sat in a laboratory at the St. Vincent Girls’ High School stitching together her first bag. Fast forward a decade, and Christal is breathing new life and history into OAD, as the winner of Invest SVG’s inaugural ‘Pitch It Vincy’ initiative.

Last Tuesday, October 29, the Glen resident held off stiff competition from six other finalists to gain the judges’ nod as overall winner – receiving a cash prize of US$2,000 and, probably most importantly, mentorship from industry experts to help grow her business.

“It feels surreal,” mused Christal. “It’s a lot more than a business win. It’s a personal win because it means that I have successfully overcome a few things that were holding back my progress. Developing the right mindset for success and positivity isn’t an easy feat!”

The 28-year-old entrepreneur was one of many Vincentians who applied when the Angel Investing initiative was launched by Invest SVG in June 2019. Seven finalists were shortlisted in August 2019, and from that point onward, they received expert training through group and one-on-one sessions.

Finalists also took part in a mock pitch event that saw them pitching to local high net-worth business owners, who provided constructive feedback. Christal recalled that the feedback they received during the mock pitch and training sessions was “vital” to their preparations for the final. “The feedback was honest and, at times, we may not have liked what was said; but it was what we needed to hear before going in.”

She expressed deep gratitude to the staff at Invest SVG, Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) and everyone else who contributed to the preparation period for the finalists. Despite the various challenges faced by the finalists, Christal said it was an overall positive experience because it boosted their confidence and raised awareness of their brands.

“I entered Pitch It Vincy because I saw an opportunity for investment. In St Vincent and the Grenadines, small business owners face difficulty in acquiring capital for their ideas – especially if they don’t have collateral. I believed in my product and I felt that even if I didn’t win, whatever came from it would be exactly what I needed for OAD at this moment,” she explained.

Christal is a past student of the St Vincent Girls’ High School and the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College. She worked at the CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank as a Customer Service Representative for seven years and was the second runner-up in the 2017 Miss SVG pageant. Currently, she is a co-host on the Wake-Up Call morning programme on Xtreme FM radio station; and is “very involved” in the Epic Sounds Steel Orchestra and the Youlou Pan Movement.

“I can’t wait to see what’s around the corner for OAD!” enthused Christal.

She divulged that within hours of winning Pitch It Vincy 2019, several opportunities have been presented to her – some of which she is not at liberty to share just yet.

“Investors have expressed interest in the business… It’s only a matter of shaking hands and coming to a final agreement. I’m confident that it’s only going to get better from here. I’m never going to give up!”

Christal added: “If someone had told me 10 years ago, while I was eagerly stitching that first bag at GHS, that I would win the first Pitch It Vincy… be a fashion accessory designer and have my own business, I would have laughed and walked the other way.”

She encourages all Vincentian entrepreneurs to take part in Pitch It Vincy 2020, and to start preparing as soon as possible – instead of waiting for the application period to open. Her advice includes: creating a milestone chart with a list of company goals; getting business accounts in order; conduct proper market research; be open-minded and willing to take advice; and gather a support system of people who genuinely care about your success.

Christal also shared that she intends to make OAD an “internationally recognized brand” within the next five years.

“St Vincent and the Grenadines will be known as the origin of one of the best fashion accessory brands in the world and the company will have at least one other brand under its wing.

I’m not sure how it’s going to be, but it will happen!”

This article was originally published on the Searchlight website

Jamaica has joined 28 other nations, including several Caribbean states, that have developed online investment guides (iGuides).

These facilities are repositories of information for local and foreign investors interested in doing business in the respective countries.

Work to develop the guides was led by local stakeholders, principally countries’ investment promotion agencies in several instances, in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) spearheaded development of the country’s iGuide, which also involved inputs from the Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA), and the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA).

The information, which is hosted on UNCTAD’s website, can also be accessed on JAMPRO’s platform from any location globally.

It facilitates a comparison of Jamaica as an investment destination, alongside other countries globally.

The iGuide is intended to provide investors with information at their fingertips that will help them in their decisions to invest in Jamaica.

Among the focus areas are manufacturing, agri-business, energy, the creative industries, the knowledge sectors, mining, tourism, and the Logistics Hub Initiative (LHI) and the partner Special Economic Zone (SEZ) framework.

A foreign translation feature has also been incorporated to facilitate ease of communication.

The iGuide was formally launched and symbolically handed over recently to JAMPRO President, Diane Edwards, by UNCTAD Economist, Ian Richards, who spearheads the overall investment guide programme.

The agency will serve as the facility’s custodian and will be responsible for, among other things, keeping the site’s information up to date.

The presentation was made during a brief ceremony at JAMPRO’s head office in New Kingston.

Ms. Edwards, who is CAIPA’s Immediate Past President, said the iGuide is an important tool and welcome addition to investment promotion in Jamaica.

Noting that the local investment climate is “extremely positive”, she said the iGuide “is going to take that information out to the world in a form that is really using best practice”.

Ms. Edwards assured that as the country’s national investment and promotion agency, JAMPRO remains committed to improving the business environment.

“Our constant focus is on how do we make it easier for people to do business in Jamaica… . How do we make the business environment more open and how do we make businesses feel more welcome in Jamaica. All of that is important to us,” she said.

Ms. Edwards noted that JAMPRO serves as the Secretariat for the National Competitiveness Council, which manages Jamaica’s business environment reform agenda, intended to ensure that businesses feel the difference that this undertaking is going to make for them.

“Already we see that they are feeling it, because Jamaica recently jumped four places in the [World Bank’s] Doing Business Report, to number 71 out of 140 countries,” she added.

Ms. Edwards encouraged stakeholder interests to utilise the guide and disseminate it “as much as possible”.

“We think it has really good information. We want you to tell everyone about it… that it is a tool, not only for foreign businesses, but for local businesses to use to develop their business cases and present their projects,” she said.

For his part, Mr. Richards said UNCTAD’s aim and role in advancing the iGuide “is really to support the Government in implementing Vision 2030 Jamaica as part of the UN’s overall development assistance framework”.

This, he noted, is being done in tandem with the other UN and international organisations in Jamaica.

“We know that it has been a difficult time for the region, according to the UNCTAD data, in terms of attracting foreign direct investments. But for Jamaica, I think these are very exciting times,” he said.

Of note, Mr. Richards said, is the Logistics Hub Initiative and accompanying Special Economic Zones.

“We are very excited by that because, given all that Jamaica already has – a good business infrastructure, a supportive government, a good education system, good market access – this will provide spillovers, linkages and opportunities for many different sectors in Jamaica… particularly new sectors… and will also lead to more jobs, more wealth, and more development for the country. So, that’s very important for us,” he added.

The UNCTAD Executive said the organisation is “very happy” to be working with JAMPRO and other stakeholders, to attract and facilitate investment for the “new, exciting and promising sectors in Jamaica”.

Other Caribbean states that he said have developed investment guides are Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia.

“We will be launching one for Curaçao in November next, and early next year, we will be launching iGuides in Barbados and St. Kitts,” Mrs. Richards further informed.

The extent of the platform’s development also incorporates countries in Asia and Africa, among other locations.

This article was originally published on the Jamaica Information Service website

By Kenton X. Chance

NIAMEY, Niger (CMC) — Outfits, handbags, shoes and accessories from a number of Caribbean designers and a self-taught Nigerien designer generated a buzz at a fashion show here on Saturday night.

The show was held as part of the fifth meeting of Ministers of Culture from the 79-member African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states at a time when the bloc is focusing on the potential contribution of culture to national development.

The Caribbean designs came from the French-, Spanish- and English-speaking countries and were brought together by Caribbean Fashion Showroom, which dubs itself “the home for the region’s leading designers”.

The event was organised by the Barbados-based Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) in collaboration with the Brussels-based secretariat of the ACP.

“What we have seen today is the true collaboration between Africa and the Caribbean, promoting fashion, promoting handicraft, promoting talent and culture from our countries,” Escipión J. Oliveira, deputy executive director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) after the event.

He said his agency took advantage of the opportunity of the four-day meeting, which ended on Sunday, “to present to our African brother and sisters and also Pacific brothers and sisters that we can collaborate to gain markets”.

Oliveira said that what patrons saw on the catwalk was the result of a collaboration between a large cross-section of Caribbean artisans who make outfits, accessories, shoes and handbags.

“This is just a sample but we are working together with the European Union and with the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) directorate to promote competitiveness of our small and medium-size enterprises.”

The show was held at a time when the ACP is focusing on the potential of culture and its expression as a contributor to the development of its member countries.

“And the fashion industry and the jewellery industry is part of the culture industry and is part of the things that we can show the world and promote our culture and we can promote our talent,” Oliveira told CMC.

He said that while it is the first time that his agency is collaborating with the ACP secretariat, Caribbean Fashion Showroom participated this year in the Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA), the region’s premier cultural festival.

Oliveira told CMC that Caribbean Export has also been with the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat and the CARIFORUM directorate promoting the Caribbean.

“This is the first time we’ve come to Africa but it certainly not be the last,” he said, adding that the reception was “extraordinary”.

Hadiza Amadou, the 34-year-old Nigerien designer whose pieces graced the runway at the show, told CMC the event was a great adventure for her.

“It was the first time that I had a show with somebody who is not from my country and it was so great for me because I learned so many things from Rodney and his team,” she said, speaking of Rodney Powers of Caribbean Fashion Showroom, who is also a fashion consultant to Caribbean Export and co-ordinated Saturday’s show.

Amadou said she presented traditional designs from seven regions in Niger, but was “just wowed” by the Caribbean designs.

“I saw that they were more advanced than us, but I just told myself it’s not the same tradition that we have. Everybody liked it and it was very, very beautiful — from the jewellery to the bags, to the accessories, to the shoes and the clothes, everybody was so great and so beautiful,” she told CMC.

It was quite obvious from the murmurs at Saturday’s show that some of the Caribbean designs were too revealing for some members of the audience.

“There were many reactions to the clothes that are not — they call it extravagant,” Amadou told CMC, noting religious and other traditions in Niger that frown on women wearing revealing clothes.

She said that the Caribbean designs could have a future in Niger, as things are changing.

“It’s changing positively because five years ago we couldn’t have the show that we had last night with the Caribbean, but today we did it and everybody saw the photos and they said it’s beautiful. So I think are going to change and it (Caribbean designs) has a future here.”

Amadou has been a designer for 10 years and since then has been having an annual show on March 8 — International Women’s Day — attracting some 3,000 patrons each year.

“So I have many customers from outside of African, inside Africa, Europe, USA. So I can tell that people like what I do and people encourage me a lot.”

The show was intended to showcase talent with a view to creating economic opportunities for the designers, a point that Oliveira emphasised.

“I hope that this brings sales, because, at the end of the day, the artist and their designers are to make a living,” Oliveira said, adding that his agency participated in the two-day meeting of technical experts that formed part of the four-day conference here, and made the point that people working in culture have to make a decent living.

“And a decent living, they are going to obtain it through selling their talent and through accessing markets. The idea is that this fashion showcase will allow Caribbean talent to be exposed to the world and, hopefully, bring about greater wealth to our countries, bring about greater employment and sustainable development to the countries.

“We are trying to develop culture in a business-like way as to allow our cultural entrepreneurs to make a decent living, contribute to financing the states, through paying taxes, employing people and reaching sustainable development through a joint work, and it has been wonderful experience,” Oliveira told CMC.

“We are very small countries but we have a big heart and we have big talent and we should be able with that talent, with that competitiveness, together, to reach markets, niche markets,” he said, adding that his agency is focusing on niche markets that are high value-added.

“We are not looking at all for cheap products or big quantities We are looking for specific niche markets, specific niche markets that we actually reach with the quality of our people, with the quality of our handicraft and industry to penetrate those markets for the benefit of all of our people.”

Meanwhile, Rodney Powers said that as a result of Saturday’s event, Caribbean Fashion Showcase was invited to participate in Seychelles’ fashion week.

“Our collaboration with Africa, as the Caribbean, is very, very important. It is the motherland, as you are aware, so, for us, it is important that we collaborate,” Powers told CMC, adding that the showcase excited the patrons at Saturday’s event.

“They were applauding the quality of the world, the designs, the design concept,” Powers said, noting that he sees the Caribbean as having significant potential in the fashion market in Africa.

“I mean the Caribbean is bursting with colour, it is busting with glamour, style, aesthetic, also as Africa. For them to be able to see Caribbean people doing what they do, they are embracing colour, they are embracing style, the level of uniqueness, the consistency, for me, I think it was fantastic; the response was amazing.”

The models who displayed the fashion items all came from Niger.

“We trained the models, we did some workshops with them before we went straight into the show and for me it was good. They enjoyed it, they showed us a lot of love and appreciation and we are happy to collaborate with them,” Powers said.

Amadou, too, welcomed the Caribbean-Africa fashion collaboration.

“Africa need more collaboration from the rest of the world because we need to have the experiences of others; we need to see how they do the things; we need to learn from them because many things are done just by people [opting] to do things. But we need to have some mentors to show us the way,” she told CMC.

This article was originally published on iWitness News