Latest News

09/13/2004

Press Release

Investor Roadmap Expected to Boost Business Environment in Dominica

The investment and business climate in Dominica is expected to receive a boost with a new ‘roadmap' project soon to be executed by the Caribbean Trade and Competitiveness Development Program (C-TRADECOM), a United States Agency for International Development initiative.

C-TRADECOM will be preparing a Business and Investor Roadmap and Business Guide for Dominica which will examine the present procedures to an entrepreneur's starting up and operating a firm in the country as well as create an action plan to streamline procedures and eliminate red tape that impose costs on entrepreneurial activity.

The exercise will specifically identify and analyze key steps, time frames, costs and submission requirements involved with starting up and operating a business in Dominica and collect and review relevant legislation and the range and terms of financial products offered to businesses in the eastern Caribbean state.

The roadmap, which will be similar to one carried out in Antigua and Barbuda last year, and in Jamaica two years ago, will also create a document that can serve as the basis of a procedural investment/business guide for the country; will analyze the efficiency of the present investment/business regime and develop recommendations to achieve greater efficiency through practical reform.

According to C-TRADECOM officials, the initiative will place emphasis on the tourism, agri-business, light manufacturing and information and communications industries and will make recommendations aimed at increasing investment in these sectors. “While some of the administrative and procedural barriers that a roadmapping exercise identifies may seem to be mere nuisances at first glance, taken as a whole they can become overwhelming, thereby deterring or raising the cost of investment and formalization,” an official said.

It is anticipated that the Dominica roadmap, together with the previous exercise undertaken in Antigua and Barbuda, would serve as examples to other countries in the region to conduct similar analyses that can help improve administrative procedures and benchmark procedures among Caribbean states. The Antigua roadmap was handed over to the Antigua Government in April.