Date: 17 June 2014
Venue: Lancaster House, London
The half day conference and networking event aimed at attracting new UK investors and businesses into the region was jointly organised by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Caribbean Council and formed a part of the official biennial UK-Caribbean Government to Government Forum. The Caribbean Council also worked in relation to this event in close collaboration with the Caribbean Export Development Agency.
This high level event took place on the morning of Tuesday 17 June 2014 at Lancaster House, the UK government venue in central London.
The event was chaired by the President of the Caribbean Council, Lord Foulkes. Our keynote speaker from Government was Mark Simmonds MP, the British Minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office responsible for relations with the Caribbean and Overseas Territories, who opened the conference. Dr William Warren Smith, the President of the Caribbean Development Bank, was another keynote speaker, and we were pleased to hear from Tim Corrigan, Managing Director for the Caribbean and the Middle East at Kier Construction about the business environment. There were several Caribbean Ministers participating in the overall forum who attended along with British officials.
There was also a session looking at a small number of target sectors in more detail. The presentations can be found by clicking on the links below.
Opportunities in the International Education sector: Dr Anthony Fisher, Director, International Office, University of the West Indies
New opportunities in tourism: James Burdess, Director, Caribbean, South and Central America, Savills Residential International
Working together to build exports to the EU: Christopher McNair, Manager – Competitiveness and Innovation, The Caribbean Export and Development Agency
Infrastructure and Energy Opportunities in the Caribbean: Benjamin Greenberg, Director, Real Estate Services, Deloitte
In addition to the conference programme, there was a networking opportunity for all participants prior to and following the conference at which CARIFORUM countries had trade stands offering the opportunity to find out in more detail about the specific business opportunities in each country.
Photos from the conference can be found here
Details of the official Communique are listed here this gives you an idea of the wider series of events that happened throughout the forum Communique
We are grateful to our sponsors, Cable and Wireless and Caribbean Airlines, for supporting the event.
The final agenda can be found by clicking below.
