TRADE between Saint Lucia and Barbados could be boosted with the signing of a Memorandum of Understand between Saint Lucia’s Trade Export Promotion Agency (TEPA) and the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) Tuesday at the Bay Gardens Inn.
Jacqueline Emmanuel-Flood, Chief Executive Officer of TEPA said that the MOU symbolizes a new phase in relations between Barbados and Saint Lucia and that her organization could learn much from BIDC which has 60 years in business development in Barbados and the region.
“There is so much we can learn from the BIDC,” she said at the signing adding that TEPA and BIDC will be able to share expertise and facilitate each other in the market.
“To us at TEPA this is a welcome initiative. We are looking forward to making this MOU not just an agreement on paper but a plan of action,” Emmanuel-Flood said.
Paul Waithe, BIDC’s Manager of Export and Business Development agreed that the MOU will be beneficial to both agencies seeing that it intends to promote cooperation and collaboration between them.
“We applaud TEPA for engaging us on this journey,” He said.
Members of the two agencies met both formally and informally with the latter taking the form of cocktail reception at the Inn attended by business leaders and manufacturers from both countries.