Asot Michael, Minister of Tourism, Economic Development Investment and Energy, met with representatives of Compete Caribbean and representatives of the ABIA

Digital Photograph From Left to Right: Mrs. Sherelyn Hughes-Thomas (Economic Development and Planning Director, ABIA); Mr. Michiel van der Veur (Consultant Van der Veur Advice); Ms. Sascha Mercer (Marketing & Business Development Director, ABIA); Hon. Asot Michael (Minister of Tourism, Economic Development Investment and Energy); Dr. Sylvia Dohnert (Private Sector Lead Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank and Executive Director, Compete Caribbean Program); Mr. Alejandro Carrion Menendez (Coordinator, Eastern Caribbean (OECS) for Compete Caribbean / Inter-American Development Bank

The Hon. Minister Asot Michael, Minister of Tourism, Economic Development Investment and Energy, met with representatives of Compete Caribbean and representatives of the Antigua & Barbuda Investment Authority (ABIA) to discuss the next phase of ongoing projects that are currently being (co-)funded and facilitated by Compete Caribbean.

The Government of Antigua and Barbuda has received financing from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) under the project named “Compete Caribbean’ for the purpose of ‘Strengthening Investment Attraction in Antigua and Barbuda’ (A1-CC2023)

Compete Caribbean has been engaged with various projects in Antigua & Barbuda, and in particular ‘the Strengthening of Investment Attraction’ and the ‘One Stop Shop Window for Business Registration’. The Strengthening of Investment Attraction will build capacity for attracting and facilitating foreign and domestic investment, by way of developing and implementing strategies for the Diversified Tourism and Information Technology-Enabled Services/Business Process Outsourcing (ITeS/BPO) sectors.

The Minister stated that “he is fully on board and committed to the technical and intrinsic support provided by Compete Caribbean” that has a combined value of $ 1,115,684 ECD for the current projects.

The Hon. Gaston Browne, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance & Corporate Government, has earlier expressed his support as these projects are in keeping with the mandate of rebuilding Antigua and Barbuda through FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) attraction and job creation.

Compete Caribbean is a private sector development program that provides technical assistance grants and investment funding to support productive development policies, business climate reforms, clustering initiatives and Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SME) development activities in the Caribbean region. The program, jointly funded by the Inter-American Development Bank
(IDB), the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD), supports projects in 15 Caribbean countries. Projects in the OECS countries are implemented in partnership with the Caribbean Development Bank.