Project assistance completion report (PACR) : investment promotion and export development

The project was a qualified success in achieving many of its objectives. It helped to generate a significant amount of new investment in export manufacturing and service industries, facilitated the introduction of new business opportunities into the region and OECS member states, and provided training to both public and private sector personnel in business development techniques and approaches. ECIPS has largely succeeded in demonstrating its value as a U.S.-based window to promote and represent regional business interests. This success, as noted in the 1992 evaluation, can be measured by the growing commitment of OECS members -- even those who have received little or no benefit from the business development initiatives of the present project -- to fund basic staffing and administrative costs needed to maintain ECIPS as their joint representative to the U.S. market. Other achievements noted in the 1992 evaluation included the following. (1) The ECIPS-IDC investment promotion model has strengthened the capacity of OECS members to undertake investment promotion activities. More specifically, it has strengthened local business development capabilities by demonstrating the effects of different types of investment promotion activities, developing leads for potential co-ventures, promoting the Eastern Caribbean as a good place to do business, and facilitating new ventures in specific industries such as data entry and 807 assembly operations. (2) The ECIPS-IDC model has provided Eastern Caribbean governments with a first-hand introduction to the problems of identifying and developing new international business opportunities. The experience of ECIPS, like previous investment promotion activities, indicates that effective trade promotion activities are best led by an active private sector, with government playing a supporting role -- providing trade regulation and creating a favorable policy, legislative, and regulatory environment.