OECS investment opportunities, and capabilities in tourism, other services and manufacturing are being promoted in Canada in a May 26th to June 7th OECS ‘Business Road Show’. An eight member OECS team is visiting the Canadian cities of Halifax, Calgary and Ottawa to raise awareness of the manufacturing, business and investment opportunities offered by the group of nine Member States.

The road-show will promote and market the region to Canadians as an attractive location for investment, and develop strategies that will stimulate two-way trade, business interests and exchanges between the two regions. It will also identify possible areas of future technical cooperation in productive activities and explore opportunities for strategic alliances and joint ventures.  

The first leg of the tour was organized to dovetail with the 38th Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), being hosted by Canada in Halifax, May 28th to 29th.  The OECS Team will make presentations to business roundtable discussions at the CDB meeting and mount a promotional exhibition on the OECS.  OECS Director General Dr. Len Ishmael, who is leading the team,  will make a presentation at a Business Round table hosted by the Canadian Minister of Defence and Minister responsible for Nova Scotia and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Mr. Peter Mackay, on the theme “Where Canada Meets the Caribbean”. Dr. Ishmael and other team members will also push the OECS case during presentations to a Commercial Opportunities Forum and Business Matchmaking.

In Calgary, the team will have engagements with public sector and business officials and the Calgary Economic Development agency.  They will also hold a forum for the growing OECS community in Calgary and mount a promotional exhibition.  The Team will hold a similar Diaspora forum in Ottawa.

Canada has had a long history of support for development initiatives in the OECS and the wider CARICOM region, and the current Prime Minister Mr. Stephen Harper last year signaled his intention to further strengthen Canada-Caribbean relations by announcing, while on a visit to the region, the provision of 600 million Canadian dollars over the next ten years to support trade competitiveness, disaster risk management and institutional leadership development programs. Canada has also indicated its keen interest in getting negotiations started on a new trade agreement with CARICOM.  Canadian owned banks are the three largest in the Caribbean and a number of Canadian colleges, including some in Nova Scotia have satellite campuses in the Caribbean. 

The OECS sees new opportunities for Canadian investment in the service industries, including financial services, medical services, and education.