The Ministry of Finance, Investment and Trade held a public workshop on Thursday, 2nd July, 2015 at the HJ Robinson High School at 5:00 pm and on Providenciales Friday, 3rd July, 2015 at the at 5:00 pm.
These workshops introduced the Caribbean Overseas Territories Small Medium Enterprises (COSME) Project to the Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI) and gave participants a walkthrough of the application process for Direct Assistance Grants (DAGs) which include the Guidelines, Application forms and other Annexes, while answering questions of participants/applicants.
“This partnership with COSME will allow us to invite business persons operating in the Micro, Small and Medium size Enterprise (MSME) Sector and potential business persons in TCI to attend any one of the two public workshops” said Ministry of Finance representative, Arthur Been.
The forty-one (41) month COSME Programme has three specific objectives namely:
1. Strengthening the capacity of the Governments of the Caribbean Overseas Countries and Territories, (OCTs) to service the business sector;
2. Improving the capacity of Business Service Organizations (BSOs) to engage in public-private policy and administrative reform dialogue with Governments and provide services to their constituency of SMEs;
3. Promoting stronger collaboration, trade and investment relations among the EU, CARIFORUM and the Caribbean OCTs.
The COSME Programme is the final programme under the 10th EDF Regional Programme for the Caribbean Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) was launched on April 1, 2014 in the island of Tortola (BVI).
The overall objective is to contribute to the sustainable and climate-resilient economic diversification and prosperity of Caribbean OCTs. This will be accomplished by improving the competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the participating territories.
Upon completion of the program, it is expected that there will be improvement of policies and the legislative and administrative framework for SMEs to establish and conduct business in the Caribbean OCTs, improved capacity of business support organizations to deliver the necessary services to their members and engage in dialogue with Government as well as improved competitiveness of SMEs participating in the programme and improved collaboration, trade and investment relations among the EU, CARIFORUM and the Caribbean OCTs.
The programme will disperse €15M to projects benefitting the participating Caribbean Territories. The funds were made available by the European Union (EU).
More information about the COSME Programme can be found at: http://www.cosmeprogramme.org
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