OECS hosts regional fashion and garment seminar

Castries, July 1, 2015.- The OECS will host a two-day regional seminar on the Fashion and Garment Industry and Economic Development in the Caribbean on July 1 - 2, at the Bay Gardens Hotel, Rodney Bay.

The two-day event will bring together representatives of governmental focal points for small and medium-sized enterprises from Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) member states, representatives from SMEs, business associations, and fashion industry experts from the region.

The Saint Lucia seminar is expected to address a wide range of issues including public policy imperatives to support the fashion and garment industry in the Caribbean, education and training for the fashion industry, financing options to support the fashion industry in the Caribbean, online marketing for fashion and garment products, and “Positioning the Caribbean to Win: Penetrating the International Fashion Market”.

One of the highlights of the seminar will be a presentation on the recent findings of an Assessment Exercise of the Fashion industry in OECS Member states which was undertaken as part of the private sector component of the 10th European Union Development Fund Regional Integration and Trade for the OECS Program. That presentation will identify the main findings from the assessment exercise, point to key recommendations for action in support of SMEs in the OECS and work on modalities for building national and regional networks for SMEs and Business Support Organizations in the fashion industry.

The textile industry is one of the largest and most active sectors in the global economy. The sector was valued at over US$1.7 trillion in 2012, employing about 75 million people worldwide. In the Caribbean region whilst the sector has seen declines in the last few decades, efforts are currently underway in several countries including those of the OECS Economic Union to reposition the sector to take advantage of growing global market share. With the support of regional agencies like SELA and the OECS Commission through its Competitive Business Unit (CBU) new efforts are being made to promote the development of a fashion industry with the potential for global marketing, and developing strategies for the use and adoption of approaches to position the sector with a key focus on the capacity of designers and manufacturers to create partnerships, and design an identity for selling brands.

The OECS through the CBU is leading the regional agenda and is expected through resources available under the 10th European Development Fund Regional Integration for Trade in the OECS Program to deliver direct support to some of the leading export ready SMEs as well as to embark on a cluster development program to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises in the region.

The Regional fashion seminar is therefore an important engagement for OECS member states and it is hoped that this will culminate in a program of action among Member states and see increase in regional cooperation especially in building competitiveness of SMEs, joint efforts in training and education, mobilization of financial and technical resources and joint procurement of raw material inputs needed to produce high quality products in the fashion and design sector.

The seminar is being jointly sponsored by the SELA, the OECS Commission and the Trade Export Promotion Agency (TEPA) of Saint Lucia.