• Caribbean Export Development Agency has developed an online registry for the Caribbean based services suppliers.
• The CE Services Registry will enable Caribbean suppliers to be found by regional and international audiences.
• Listed services suppliers to gain greater exposure and opportunities in export markets.
• Caribbean service providers are encouraged to be listed to enhance their legitimacy.
• Registration can trigger new collaborations and partnerships as firms are able to identify other companies or practitioners with skills sets that they currently lack but that would enhance and extend their business offering.  

The Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) has expanded its CE-Intelligence Portal to include a registry of Caribbean based service providers in its CE Services Registry.

UNCTAD has reported that internationally, in many developing states, Services exports rapidly grew, between 2005 and 2018 at a rate of 7.6 per cent annually. Additionally, services’ direct contribution to exports in developing countries grew from 14 to 17 per cent between 2005 and 2018. The services sectors also offer significant opportunities in terms of increased exports which can enhance the competitiveness of the region and stimulate economic development.

According to the International Trade Centre (ITC) CARIFORUM exports of services amounted to over one hundred million over the period 2014-2018. Despite the importance of services, many CARIFORUM states are yet to fully explore its potential.

“This is an important and fast-moving sector with services businesses contributing on average approximately 69 percent of GDP in CARIFORUM States, providing many new opportunities,” said S.H. Allyson Francis, Services Specialist at Caribbean Export. “The registry will allow Caribbean Export to have greater knowledge of the actors in the sector for business to business linkages and better craft interventions for technical and capacity building in the services sector. Our hope is that the CE Services Registry will serve as a pooled data source for the CARIFORUM Services Sector.”

Caribbean Export recognised that there was no central location for people to find services providers in the Caribbean.  Further, in order to truly leverage the benefits of the CARIFORUM-EU EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement) regional services providers may need to prove they are a registered service provider to prospective clients or even whilst attempting to provide their service across borders.   

The CE Services Registry enables those seeking services to easily search and find services providers by location, professional accreditations and industry.  Further, it presents services providers with a suite of useful resources to support them to trade their services across borders with export guides, information on trade laws and trade agreements.

“We recognise that the success of the registry relies on the quality of the information and service providers listed.  We are working with our partners to reach those providers in country and once we have a critical mass we will embark on a promotional campaign so that it becomes the ‘go-to’ space to find service providers in the Caribbean”.

Whilst the CE Services Registry is available for all CARIFORUM based services providers to register, Caribbean Export has partnered with the Coalition of Services Providers in Barbados, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago initially.

Caribbean Export encourages services providers to visit and register at http://services.ceintelligence.com/ in order to increase recognition and visibility, discover new collaborations or partnership and potentially gain more clients through the sites increased promotion.