HUNDREDS OF thousands of Republic Financial Holdings Ltd customers who operate businesses in the SME sector stand to benefit from a partnership between RFHL and the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) with the intention of increasing export potential and capacity.

President and CEO of RFHL Nigel Baptiste announced the partnership with CEDA on Monday during a press conference held at Republic House in Port of Spain.

'The development of export markets has always been an important aspect of this region's growth. But it has become even more important over the last two years as we all experienced covid19 and its fallouts. We recognised because of it, the high risks posed by our dependency on one product or sector.'

'This morning is a special occasion because it signals the beginning of what we believe to be a very important partnership, not just for the group but for all our customers.'

'A partnership like this is needed now more than ever as our inherently vulnerable Caribbean economies remain on the path to recovery,' he said.

Through CEDA, corporate and commercial clients will gain knowledge and exposure through virtual and in-person training, mentoring and specialised workshops centred on topics such as cost and financial management, export marketing and facilitating trade in services.

CEDA manager for competitiveness and export promotion Dr Ramie Sinanan said the programmes would give SMEs in RFHL the tools to manage and develop a business post-pandemic.

'We will work very closely with Karen and her team to develop a referral service so clients can work through their account managers and actually get access to Caribbean export services through a website.'

'We also realise that customers need the know-how in terms of going out and exporting their products and services.'

'The pandemic has taught us that businesses have to look at how they manage their finances better and we see this as being a significant training programme.'

CEDA is also conducting a Caribbean Investment Forum in Dubai where Caribbean SMEs would be able to highlight products and services for export to new markets.

'The event is focused on attracting investment into the Caribbean. We are focused on a few main sectors - agriculture technology, renewable and green energy and hotel and resort development. We will have a number of projects that will be presented at the forum. Our local Caribbean Association of Business will promote a project that is focused on attracting investments in agri-technology in TT.'

Baptiste said exporters, while having to face the same challenges that importers faced over the past two years, also had to face the decimation of their export markets.

'Freight as you would know went through the roof for the pandemic period, so that would be universal. But where it would have an additional and unique challenge would be what happened to its export markets. The same way the economy slowed down in TT, it happened ev