Nassau, Bahamas - The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation would like to invite interested firms to attend the launch of the Compete Caribbean Enterprise Innovation Challenge Fund.

The fund is Compete Caribbean’s mechanism to support firms that want to innovate, create new products and export to new markets. All CARIFORUM registered firms, through a competitive process, have an opportunity to access grant resources of up to US$500,000 through either the Support to Cluster Initiatives (SCI) or Direct Firm Support (DFS) window.

The Compete Caribbean program is a new and innovative approach to private sector development. It collaborates with Governments and Private Sector groups to improve competitiveness and economic growth across 15 beneficiary countries in the Caribbean region.

The five year program 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. The US$ 40 million program is jointly funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) , the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB ) and the United Kingdom Department of International Development (DFID)  .

Come and join the Compete Caribbean Team as they launch this initiative locally. Please see attached document for more details on the Challenge Fund and register online at www.thebahamaschamber.com under events.

The event will be held at the Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort on March 13th, 2pm to 5pm and registration is required.