Business chambers in the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia are joining forces in an effort to boost the trade of goods and services among their regions.
The Commonwealth Coalition of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCCCI) was officially launched yesterday in Antigua by representatives of business entities including the Network of Caribbean Chambers of Commerce (CARICHAM), the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in South Asia.
Speaking via Zoom, Lisa Fabian, adviser to the CCCCI, said while the Commonwealth represents a remarkable network of nations, of markets, institutions, and people, “there are several opportunities that exist that we have not yet explored and this remains considerable untapped potential for all of us”.
“There are opportunities for greater trade, for investment, business partnerships, even private sector cooperation,” she said.
“So this initiative seeks to fill this gap and the proposed coalition is based on a simple idea that when we connect our chambers of commerce and, like we’ve seen it happen within the Caribbean, when we connect, we get access to greater opportunities, and our economies become stronger.”
Arif Zaman, executive director for the Commonwealth Business Women’s Network, emphasised the importance of the coalition, pointing out that it was “bringing together 75 per cent of the Commonwealth members, but also probably close to 90 per cent of its youngest people”.
“Because where are the youngest people in the Commonwealth? They’re not where I live, they’re not in the UK, they’re in Africa and they’re in South Asia, predominantly. Yeah, and that’s where the engine of this is,” Zaman said.
Supportive
“Of course, the Caribbean itself, you have also a younger population, so this is important and it doesn’t mean that we’re not working with, we call them the ABCs – Australia, Britain, Canada. Of course, they’re very very supportive of what we’re doing.
“But this is going to be driven by the chambers working together. It’s been agreed in principle that the South Asia Chamber, in their ninestorey building, they will act as a, not so much a secretariat but a kind of coordinator of this. We have a really exciting collaboration as a key part of that.”
Martin Cave, executive director of the Antigua and Barbuda Chamber of Commerce, said the CCCCI was “bringing all our chambers into one collaboration to form a huge trading bloc, a huge connection of businesses”.
“Governments meet, they sign accords, they shake hands and so they make connections but governments don’t trade, so it’s there, a pathway open to us to trade to exchange our goods or services for value and that is what CCCCI exemplifies,” he noted.
“It’s a coalition of . . . the willing, . . . It’s a coalition of multiple regions to do business – I think that we are ready to do business – with each other. This connects the CARIBCHAM, which is a network of Caribbean chambers and we are 24 countries. We’re as far east as Barbados, as far west as Belize, as far north as The Bahamas, as far south as French Guiana.”
Cave added: “Although they’re not all Commonwealth countries, there is now a linkage between these chambers and the other chambers in it. So this brings together a huge network of businesses.
“We are talking about 75 per cent of the Commonwealth’s 56 members, and this is formed . . . by young people, persons who have potential, persons who have ideas, persons who have vigour and youth, and, of course, helped by the old ones who have the knowledge and the experience.”
(SC)