A new connection
"The new connection that we are developing is to link investment
and trade and export strategy."
Geoffrey da Silva, Chief Executive Officer, Guyana Office
for Investment (GO-INVEST)
Re-inventing the wheel
"Experience shows that frequently, instead of trying to examine
in depth the reasons for poor results and subsequently adopting
measures to correct the situation, the authorities decide to change
the institution, and to 're-invent the wheel'."
Camilo Jaramillo, consultant, Colombia
Problems of performance measurement
"Performance measurement is sometimes very difficult to
evaluate. Because no exporter will disclose to us the profits made
through our programme, the best way to evaluate performance is to
decide, on the basis of a survey, whether or not the direct
beneficiaries of a programme are satisfied."
Undrick Ceus, Executive Director, PROMOCOM, Haiti
Strong national focal point essential, but regional
TSI
"I strongly believe that a national focal point, or executive
council that serves to plan, execute and monitor concerted national
policies and strategies for export development is essential."
Cagatay Ozden, Foreign Trade Expert, Export Promotion Centre
of Turkey (IGEME)
What people will pay for
"People are willing to pay for developing linkages with new
buyers, but not for training the employees of their firms. A
comprehensive medium-term approach of creation of demand (through
intensive awareness building) followed by selecting pilot groups of
firms willing to avail themselves of these services for a price
(even though subsidized) will help new groups to emerge, assuming
that the pilot groups obtain benefits and the new groups become
aware of them."
Mukesh Gulati, Focal Point Manager, Cluster Development
Programme, UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), New
Delhi, India
Network sustainability
"Network sustainability is a direct result of targeting. Members
of a network change according to success and growth. Their
prior-ities, core business, scope/scale of operations, skills and
expertise all change as members develop."
Rohan Ellis, Chief Executive, the Cook Islands Development
Investment Board, in the 2001 e-discussion
We cannot afford to pick winners
"In the developing world we cannot afford to pick winners since
there are few, and the business of the network is to create more
winners."
Jacinta M. Kinyili, Export Promotion Council's Centre for
Business Information, Kenya
TPOs emphasize collective trade promotion
"From my experience, TPOs over-emphasize collective trade
promotion. This often happens because of pressure from industrial
lobbies and associations which have a strong interest in obtaining
public subsidies for the costly activity of getting their smaller
members to participate in trade fairs."
Fabrizio Onida, former president of the Italian Trade
Commission
project that never ends
"Making our trade support network work is like water over a
stone - a project that never ends but which over time wears down
the rough edges. Right now the stone is pretty rough around the
edges. It's not going to be a quick fix."
Brian Oak, Director, Strategic Planning, Trade Commissioner
Service, and Coordinator Team Canada Inc., Canada
Play as a team
"The number of players in the trade promotion field in Viet Nam
has been growing. But generally speaking, they have not yet been
playing as a team in which different players should undertake
different roles to provide a broad range of quality services to
exporting enterprises. The trade development effort in Viet Nam
still consists of ad hoc interventions by trade support
institutions in a limited number of areas, mostly overseas sales
support services such as trade fairs, trade missions and the
provision of business contacts."
Viet Nam country paper