WASHINGTON, D.C. – At a meeting held at the Organization of American States headquarters with regional ambassadors in late July 2026, Dr. Damie Sinanan, Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency, outlined the long-standing structural challenges holding back micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across the Caribbean, a segment that makes up the vast majority of businesses operating in the region.
One of the most pressing obstacles Sinanan identified is the critical shortage of accessible, affordable growth capital for small Caribbean firms. He explained that due to the small scale of most local MSMEs, outside investors have little incentive to back expansion projects: the due diligence costs for evaluating a $1 million investment are effectively identical to those for a far larger deal, making small-scale investments economically unappealing for most capital providers.
This financing gap pushes most growing small businesses to rely on limited traditional funding sources, including bank loans, credit union financing, or personal investment from friends and family. Sinanan emphasized that the Caribbean still lacks a developed, liquid market for equity financing and venture capital, a gap that severely restricts the pool of capital available for MSMEs to scale up their operations, enter new markets, and compete on the global stage.
Even for firms that actively seek investment, many are not positioned to attract external backing, Sinanan added. Weak internal governance frameworks, inconsistent and inadequate financial reporting, and limited available business data all reduce the bankability of Caribbean MSMEs, turning promising business concepts into uninvestable propositions for many capital providers.
Beyond financing, the trade chief highlighted multiple additional barriers that block Caribbean MSMEs from expanding their exports beyond the regional market. Many small firms lack the capital and technical knowledge required to meet strict international regulatory standards, including global food safety protocols and phytosanitary requirements, shutting them out of lucrative extra-regional export opportunities.
Digital transformation is another area where Caribbean small businesses continue to lag. Sinanan noted that a large share of regional firms still rely on outdated, traditional operational practices, rather than adopting game-changing digital innovations such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and other cutting-edge tools that have become standard across global commerce. Constrained financing, limited technical capacity, and weak innovation ecosystems have all combined to slow digital adoption across the region’s small business sector.
Geography also creates persistent competitiveness challenges for Caribbean MSMEs. As the region is made up of dozens of small island developing states, shipping goods and moving labor across and beyond the region comes with disproportionately high costs. Combined with the small volume of exports most regional firms generate, this geography means businesses cannot achieve the economies of scale needed to bring down freight costs, putting them at a major pricing disadvantage against larger global competitors.
Despite these significant headwinds, Sinanan struck a pragmatic note, noting that the region already has access to most of the resources and solutions needed to address these challenges. The core gap holding progress back, he argued, is a lack of coordinated action across the multiple support programs currently operating in the region. Currently, dozens of MSME support initiatives funded by international partners including the Inter-American Development Bank, CAF development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the European Union operate independently of one another, leading to duplicated efforts and unaddressed gaps in support for small businesses.
To build a robust pipeline of export-ready, investment-attractive firms that can drive regional economic growth, Sinanan called for a coordinated, ongoing approach to MSME development. This collaborative strategy, he said, would create a steady stream of bankable, investable Caribbean enterprises capable of attracting global capital and competing successfully in international export markets.