BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FOUNDED in June 1949, the St. Kitts and Nevis Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CIC) strives to serve the needs of an escalating local private sector in an economy where up and coming persons are taking greater interests in the business sector.
The CIC is an organisation of businesses governed by a Board of Directors who set the vision and mission of the Chamber. Their main role is Policy Advocacy while the others include encouraging members to become community oriented – to give back to the community.
Some of the Chamber’s objectives are promoting measures designed to benefit and protect all of its members; promoting business and community growth and development; settling disputes arising out of trade, commerce or manufacturing in the productive sectors of the economy; and facilitating conflict resolution between government, political interests, and the private sector in an effort to safeguard a healthy business environment for trade, commerce and manufacturing.
The Chamber boasts a 125-membership comprising two main divisions – the Nevis Division, which includes the members in Nevis, and the Manufacturer’s Division, which includes factories or production plants, and businesses that produce beverage goods. All other members form part of the general body.
Chamber membership is voluntary and opened to all businesses in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Newly-appointed Executive Director of the CIC, Calvin Cable told SKNVibes that the Chamber is making plans to move forward.
He said: “We have been working with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Birmingham and they have been giving us ideas as to how we can move the Chambers in the Caribbean, including St. Kitts and Nevis, forward. They have given us some of their techniques that they have used in Britain to enhance their Chamber’s position.”
Cable said that the CIC is seeking to offer more training courses to the businesses for their employees. He said that technical assistance is one the fortes they are planning to upgrade in the upcoming months.
He noted that there are many advantages to becoming a member of the CIC.
“They are exposed to training facilities when they become available, they are provided with the correct environment in which to operate their businesses, and they get advocacy and lobbying to get their business right. We are a very active organisation,” he said.
He further noted that many persons looked to the CIC on the implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT), and the Chamber had brought a Trinidad national, an expert in VAT relations, who was able to educate and advise the Chamber to make submissions to the government to formulate certain changes in the VAT legislation.
Cable said that benefits such as those are offered to not only CIC members but also to the wider business community, as all members benefit when submissions are made to the government that are both acknowledged and accepted.
The CIC has been in operation for 62 years and continues to stand behind its Mission Statement – ‘To improve the standard and quality of life of all people of St. Kitts and Nevis’.
