An inclusive green economy approach will offer a multitude of opportunities for Caribbean economies to achieve sustainable development.

To this end, opportunities in the green economy will be an area of major development focus of the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH collaboration over the next 3-5 years.

The importance of the green sector was the central topic of the discussions during a hybrid meeting between GIZ and Caribbean Export at the Agency’s headquarters on June 15, 2022. The meeting sought to explore synergies and discuss future collaborations in private sector development and global projects.

During the discussions, Mrs Blickwede, the Regional Director of GIZ Caribbean, reiterated the importance of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) “as a wonderful base for fostering private sector development, broadening and increasing market opportunities and creating employment for the private sector”. Mrs Blickwede continued by expressing her satisfaction with the many positive results created because of the focused nature of the Caribbean Export/GIZ collaboration.

Caribbean Export and GIZ have been working together for more than a decade, and Mr Maharaj praised the longstanding and fruitful partnership that has included several successful initiatives specifically the Business Forum in 2019, that sought to develop international partnerships for Caribbean exporters in key sectors of agro-processing, natural products, and the creative industries.

The GIZ is the governmental-owned German development agency and works in over 120 countries.