New Business Prospects from China-Caribbean Trade Fair

Small and medium businesspersons and entrepreneurs seeking to establish themselves and get into new, diverse markets, should seize the opportunity to participate in the upcoming China-Caribbean Trade Forum and Fair, said Christopher Denny, Regional Manager, Retail Banking Division at the National Commercial Bank (NCB).
NCB is one of the major sponsors of the events, which will be held in Kingston from February 2 to 5.Addressing a recent JIS Think Tank, Mr. Denny revealed that NCB had an ongoing Small – Medium Enterprise (SME) financial services initiative, under which a line of products has been customised to serve prospective new entities and assistance is also provided to help them manage and grow their businesses.
“If enterprising businesspersons want to start new entities, NCB has the capability to provide them with access to financial and other critical services that could make this happen, and that’s one of the reasons why we have come on board with this kind of initiative. It’s an efficient way for us to seize a number of opportunities to develop new relationships and foster economic development in Jamaica,” said Mr. Denny.
The China-Caribbean Economic Trade Forum and Fair are being co-hosted by the governments of Jamaica and the People’s Republic of China.
The Trade Forum, scheduled for February 2 and 3, will be held at the Jamaica Conference Centre. This event will focus on identifying the areas that need to be addressed to improve trade and investment between China and the Caribbean.
It will also look at business facilitation in terms of reducing bureaucracy and improving the facilities that are available in the Caribbean to serve the North American, Latin American and South American markets, explained Robert Stephens, Chairman of the Trade Fair Planning Committee.
“We are really looking at this as being a launch pad for the development of relationships between the private sector in Jamaica and the Caribbean, as well as companies coming out of China for expanding their markets, improving their efficiencies and in many ways, being able to access goods and services at far better rates than many of them are currently experiencing,” he noted further.
Meanwhile, the Trade Fair, which is scheduled for February 2 to 5 at the National Arena, would provide an opportunity for Jamaican and Caribbean businesspersons “to actually see and touch the products and understand the services that are being offered by the Chinese companies,” Mr. Stephens pointed out. The first day of the Fair will be dedicated to business-to-business deals and the other two days will be open to the general public.
The Chinese companies that are coming to Jamaica for the events are involved in various sectors and cover a wide range of businesses including investment and trade, manufacturing, telecommunications and information technology and tourism.
At the Fair, the Chinese companies will showcase their wares in the hope of securing partners in businesses such as tourism, mechanical and electronic products, household appliances, handicraft, light industry products, textile and garments, bio-pharmaceutical technology, agriculture and primary products, and hi-tech communication and information.