Social Media Portal Launched for Business Owners

Connect Americas seeks to promote foreign trade and international investments and is a social platform which allows local businesses to network with clients, suppliers, and investors.  The social platform was created by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) with assistance from leading companies such as Google, DH, and VISA.  This morning at the Biltmore Plaza the Belize Trade and Investment Development Service (BELTRAIDE), launched Connect Americas.

Charles Maynard, Consultant, Inter-American Development Bank

Charles Maynard

“It is social media platform to connect businesses throughout the Americas and the Caribbean, globally, and that is important. Yes we are looking at the Caribbean and the Latin American region and yes we want to connect that critical mass of three point seven million, but that’s not where we want to stop. We want to have access to the globe. So through connect Americas, we can connect amongst ourselves, we can still develop our regional markets, but we could still access and tap in on a real time basis international markets. This is going to be an online community that pretty much mirrors what you do every day in your daily business lives but hopefully having access to this platform and to these opportunities, it can remove a lot of the barriers that we talk about that impact and impede doing international trade and export. So through connect Americas, let’s see how we can grow or help you grow your business in three steps: connect, learn, finance.  You could understand what are some of the trends in the market. One of the product offerings—one of the new twist and turns and variations in the market place and how can I tap into those opportunities. The second major component is to learn. Like I said, aside from finding all the processes of how to move from point A to point B in a market, the processes of how to deal with customs, there is also a whole range of information that adds value and can add value to you—not just in your day to day business, but also when you are thinking about developing your strategies for growth—your long term, your medium term strategies and then ensuring those strategies are merged with your operations.”