PART I: INTRODUCTION

In May of 1999, Phil Lane Jr. and Dr. Michael Bopp of Four Directions International made a preliminary trip to the Commonwealth of Dominica in the West Indies in order to explore opportunities for an indigenous trade and development partnership between Four Directions International and the Carib Territory of Dominica. The purpose of building this linkage is to create a vehicle for a wide variety of business and development partnerships to occur between Canadian indigenous entities (non-profit organizations, tribal governments and businesses) with Carib and other potential partners in Dominica.

A framework agreement was developed and signed (see Appendix A) in which a general framework for working together is described as well as specific priority starting places identified.

This document will provide a brief introduction to the Dominica context and Carib specific context, and a general description of some of the highest priority development support needed in the Carib Territory and in Dominica generally. It will also describe some of the most promising business opportunities that were uncovered which seem ripe for profitable investment making. At the end of each of these sections, a brief plan for moving forward is outlined.
 
 

Background on Dominica and the Carib Territory

The Commonwealth of Dominica is one of the Windward Islands of the Eastern Caribbean. It is situated in the center of a chain of islands which also includes Guadeloupe to the north, Martinique to the south and Grenada at the southern end of the chain.

Dominica is one of the few relatively unspoiled islands left in the Caribbean region. Its natural beauty is such an exotic mixture of extremely rugged volcanic mountains and rainforests, crystal clear fresh water, rivers, plunging waterfalls and spectacular coral reefs and undersea beauty that it takes an experienced traveler a while to understand why the place hasn’t long ago been overrun by tourists and ruined.

One of the secrets is the people of Dominica, who are at once sweet, generous and warm-hearted as well as fierce in their defense of the natural environment they have inherited. The land mass of Dominica is 750 square kilometers (290 square miles). The population is relatively small; seventy-four thousand, of which approximately four thousand are Carib people living in the Carib Territory which is the only legally designated lands held by the last remnant of the great Carib nation that once dominated most of what we now call the Caribbean. Another protection for the natural beauty of the island is the simple fact that it is unsuited for large scale plantation style agriculture, simply because there is very little flat land of the kind favoured by agricultural businesses. Add to this equation, the fact that most (though not all) of the shoreline is rugged and rocky (lacking the sandy beaches sought after by tourist hotel developers) and it becomes somewhat easier to understand how Dominica has survived into the 21st century as a beautiful and relatively unspoiled jewel with enormous potential for a kind of development that is ecologically and socially sustainable.

Dominica was so named by Columbus, who sailed around the island in the late 1400s on a Sunday (the day of Dominus, the Lord). Apparently, Columbus found the island too rugged for his purposes and moved on.

Dominica was colonized by a succession of European powers; first by Spain and later by the French and English. The pre-colonial inhabitants of the island, Amerindian Carib people, proved to be unsuitable slave material, preferring to die or to flee into the seemingly impenetrable interior mountains rather than to become agricultural labourers. The European plantation managers soon found what they required in slaves imported from Africa. The descendants of these people constitute the majority of the population of contemporary Dominica. Although French rule ended in the late 1700s, the rural people of Dominica still speak a kind of French-based Creole (in addition to English) despite the fact that English has been the official language of the country for several hundred years.

The primary export crop of Dominica is bananas, which currently accounts for upwards of eighty-five percent of all export earnings and twenty-five percent of GDP. "Nature tourism" has become a relatively new and important force in the Dominica economy in the past decade, but benefits from this recent development have not spread beyond a small circle of developers and investors.
 
 

The Carib Territory

The Carib Territory consists of three thousand seven hundred (3,700) acres of land, the title to which has been held in common by the Carib people under the authority of the Carib Chief and Council since 1902. In 1978, the House of Assembly of the newly formed Commonwealth of Dominica passed the "Carib Act" reaffirming the British colonial "land-grant," and issuing a certificate of land title to the Carib people.

Five hundred years of colonial history, missionization, oppression, neglect and poverty have eroded away much of the Carib culture, language and traditions. In the past several decades, Caribs have become increasingly aware of the need to reclaim their cultural heritage as an important foundation upon which to base human and community development and the progress of the Carib nation within Dominica.

The Carib people remain among the poorest people in the country, among whom twenty-five to thirty percent are very poor and more than half live on less than two hundred US dollars a month.

Part II: Development Priorities

This section will briefly outline a few of the most important social and economic development needs which emerged as priorities for Carib development from our assessment of the situation. To be perfectly clear, the assessment we made was rapid, generic, and was based on the following.

In-depth consultations with the Chief of the Carib Territory; members of the Carib Council; the head of Carib Farmers Association and key community members, the Member of Parliament representing the Carib Territory, various ministers and senior managers of the Government of Dominica including the Minister of Community Development and Women’s Affairs; the Commissioner of local government; the Minister of Education; the Director of Adult Education; the Minister of Agriculture; as well as representatives of several NGOs who have a long history of working with Carib people.

A careful review of a recent comprehensive planning document produced by the Carib Council using a community participatory approach entitled "Carib People Conference Report" (1999), which outlines development priorities and plans for Economic Development, Communication, Housing, Youth Development, Seniors’ Support, Electrification, Water, Community Infrastructure, Waste Disposal, Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment Land Use, Forestry, Family Development, Education and Training, Women’s Development, Leadership Development and Carib Cultural Recovery.

A major in-depth planning study done for the Caribbean Development Bank entitled "Community Development Programme for the Carib Territory" (1998), produced by Cowater International Inc.

Of the many needs and development challenges we learned about from all these sources, two inter-related priorities were identified and agreed upon for the focus of a development partnership between the Carib Territory of Dominica and Four Directions International (along with other partners Four Directions will bring to the process).

1. Community Economic Development
2. Human Resources Development

A. Community Economic Development

This category of work involves two distinct but inter-related dimensions corresponding to top-down and bottom-up efforts.

Enterprise Development

1. A micro-credit scheme modeled after the Grameen Bank, linked to a small business development support program;
2. A community college without walls to focus on human resources development directly connected to Carib social and economic development processes.

• Micro-Enterprise Development

• a jam-making and marketing business
• small engine repair
• electronics repair
• guiding and tour service
• a piggery
• poultry raising
• a bakery using outdoor brick ovens
• a local radio station
• an auto repair shop
• a small trucking service
• a taxi service
• market gardening
• a small logging operation
• a fishermen’s group

For these and perhaps hundreds of other small businesses, one of the most profound barriers is the lack of start-up capital. The roots of this problem are familiar the world around. The poor are considered a bad credit risk. They have no collateral, so the banks will not give them loans, even small loans. We propose a micro-credit scheme modeled after the very successful programs developed by the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh which creates a number of small, locally managed revolving funds managed by borrower groups consisting mostly of women. This model has established a remarkable record of loan repayment, averaging ninety-five to ninety-eight percent repayment rate in almost all locations. As it turns out, the poor are not only a worthy credit risk; they are also a good investment, and the Grameen Bank has outstripped all the other mainstream banks in Bangladesh in profits, despite the fact that it loans at interest rates of a fraction of those required by the large banks. The Grameen Bank’s combination of training, technical support to borrower groups related to small business development, and focusing first on women as a primary client base has proven successful in many countries around the world. In summary, our proposal consists of a community bank, tied to a loan scheme and small business training and technical assistance program.
 
 

B. Human Resources Development

We have proposed the formulation of a local community college without walls in Carib Territory to work on building the human resources to support broad-based social and economic development of the Carib people. Types of training to be developed and offered will include the following.

• enterprise specific training (such as preparation to work in the eco-tourism and hospitality industry
• community governance
• community development
• leadership
• youth development
• women’s development
• small business management
• family life

The Four Worlds College©, a working educational model pioneered by Four Worlds/Four Directions will serve as an initial model after which the Carib Community College will be shaped. Its features include:

• a primary focus on building human capacity for sustainable development
• a participatory and culturally-based approach to program design and delivery
• oriented to the practical improvement of the quality of life
• values-driven
• learning is integrated with community life
• both non-formal and accredited programs are offered

Part III: Business and Investment Opportunities

In this section, we will outline a number of key business and investment opportunities we found in Dominica. Many of them are connected to the Carib Territory, but we will also highlight some very promising possibilities that are not Carib related.

1. Culturally-based and Eco-tourism — The potential for "nature tourism" that is already an emerging industry in Dominica is further enhanced in the Carib Territory by the attraction of Carib culture and history and the unique opportunities presented by having the hosts of a nature tourism experience be indigenous people who are prepared to share something of their way of life, their local knowledge, their arts and crafts and their land-base with visitors. A number of specific initiatives are planned as follows.
1. A four-star hotel in Carib Territory situated next to a beautiful waterfall and very near the sea. Units would be built to reflect the architecture and materials used in traditional Carib villages of the past.
1. A discrete distance from the hotel, a Carib craft cooperative and market would be established to accommodate tourists who regularly travel from cruise ships and other locations in Dominica in order to visit Carib Territory. This facility would feature traditional craftsmen (weavers, carvers, etc.) working, training young people and selling their crafts.
1. Adjacent to the market, the Carib Council plans to construct a model traditional Carib village.
1. Adjacent to the market, a comfortable and attractive restaurant will be established that will serve traditional Carib and Dominican food.
1. A performance pavilion is also planned in this complex to accommodate the world famous Carib dancers and musicians known the world over for their powerful and artistic presentations.
1. From the hotel area, tours will depart by walking trail high into the mountains to a beautiful eco-tourist base camp consisting of traditional bush material cabanas and staffed by cooks and support staff, as well as by guides and resident botanical researchers who will provide small groups of visitors with an in-depth orientation regarding Carib traditional medicine plants, wildlife, the natural flora and fauna and ecological issues facing the area.
1. Tied to this forest-based eco-tourism will be opportunities for visitors to work for specified periods of time with local people in natural herb gathering and processing activities. (See below for more detail on this industry).
1. Also tied to this constellation of tourist related services, a number of other guided "experience tours" will be offered related to Carib life, including:
1. fishing
1. agriculture
1. shelter construction
1. traditional crafts-making
1. cooking
1. One potential focus for the hotel is to specialize in healing and wellness programs stressing diet, exercise, herbal medicine, mineral baths and traditional Carib healers.
This entire constellation of culturally based eco-tourism "products" has been in the planning stages by Carib leaders for at least five years. Sites have been identified, set aside by the Carib Council and partially developed. (For example, the hotel and market/restaurant/performance pavilion area already has a paved road built to the site.)

What is now needed is core investors and a business plan. Four Directions will work with the Carib Chief Council, and other relevant partners to begin the detailed planning stage of this development, to be completed by March/April 2000.

1. Carib Transportation Company — The Carib Territory is the number one most frequently visited destination for tourists visiting Dominica (even before systematic tourism development has taken place). From Roseau (the capital) or Portsmouth (the main tourist centre) a drive of just under one hour is required on very good paved roads. Most people take busses or taxis run by non-Caribs. A clear, modern, air-conditioned and well marketed Carib transportation service to ferry passengers from the cruise ships and tourist hotels to the Territory and back (and later to provide transportation for Carib Territory based tours) is a discrete business opportunity with considerable potential for a stand-alone profitable business venture.
1. Information and Communication Technology — A number of critical factors make Dominica a prime target for development in the ICT sector.
1. the emphasis in development thinking on pollution-free industries;
1. the deregulation of the telecommunication industry;
1. the recent installation of a world class state of the art fiber-optics telephone system across the country;
1. the geographical location of Dominica in the centre of the Eastern Caribbean chain, making it ideal as a centre for regional marketing and distribution.

Given Four Direction’s well established foundation in the ICT sector, we propose the following initiatives for potential development in Dominica.
1. A small micro-computer assembly plan coupled with a repair service and a component parts’ distribution depot. We envision this venture will be undertaken in partnership with the Carib Territory as well as with other Dominica partners.
1. Coupled with computer parts and sales, we believe that a lucrative opportunity exists in regional distribution of other types of electronic components, especially for televisions and stereo component parts.
1. Because of deregulation, a window of opportunity now exists for establishing alternative long distance telephone services for the Eastern Caribbean based from Dominica. We propose the establishment of "Carib Telecom Inc.," a partnership between the Carib Territory, other selected Dominica partners, Four Directions and selected North American partners.
1. A related business to be developed is a call centre for the English and French speaking island of the Caribbean based in Dominica. There are five million English speaking people in the Caribbean, as well as French and Spanish populations.
1. Financial and Business Services — Dominica has a small but thriving off-shore banking sector, with well established ties to British, American, Canadian, Swiss and Hong Kong banks. It is relatively easy to incorporate under Dominica law, and to use Dominica’s legal and financial services to help reduce taxation and currency exchange costs for business conducted outside of Canada.

Possibly in conjunction with the Carib Community Bank (proposed in Part I of this report), we envision a lucrative potential business opportunity in the financial sector helping Dominicans to partner with Canadian (particularly indigenous) partners to pursue business and investment opportunities.
1. Natural Remedies and Herbal Products — One of the strengths of Dominica is, as we have stated earlier, a remarkably unpolluted, natural environment that is very rich in indigenous botanical material suitable for use in a wide variety of herbal medicine and other herb-based products. It is also very well suited for organic agricultural initiatives to cultivate these plants. The Carib people have an ancient traditional knowledge base about the use of natural remedies and other products, and there already exists a small scale industry in the Carib Territory of herb gathering, packaging and sales.

• a line of herbal products that can be gathered or grown and produced in Dominica
• a local and Caribbean regional market
• targeted products for the North American and European markets.

• potential Carib and other Dominica based partners with agricultural capacity and a willingness to work with us;
• an ethno-botanist with considerable international experience identifying herbal products in tropical environments and in working with indigenous people to develop a viable product line and product production process.

1. Prawn Production — We have identified Dominica partners who own a full scale prawn production operation (set up by a Korean organization as a demonstration project) that has already proven itself to be one of the best sites of its kind in the region. Fresh water jumbo prawn production is in high demand across the entire Caribbean region because of the millions of tourists that visit each year. We propose to focus this development on the production of prawn larvae for re-sale to producers across the region.

The unpolluted year-round access to fresh water on a site upon which the ponds, water systems, tanks and necessary buildings are already established and proven, situated in Dominica, which is centrally located in the region and unlike many of the tourist dependent islands is never likely to experience water shortages — makes this opportunity a relatively low cost, high yield, investment opportunity.
1. Exotic and Organic Products Agricultural Production — Dominica has rich soil, abundant water, and is relatively free of large scale commercial farming (except for banana farming, which doesn’t require flat ground). There is already a thriving organic agricultural movement in Dominica, and from this base, we propose to focus on a specialty market involving:

• orchids and other exotic flowers
• organic herbs
• organic fruit and vegetable products (such as jams and jellies, juices, etc.)

1. Water — An obvious product to be developed on Dominica is bottled water. Shortages of potable water in many countries in the region, and the presence of a small but profitable bottling plant in the north of the island signals a solid opportunity and one that can readily be based in the Carib Territory.
1. Automobile Parts Distribution — Residents of the eastern Caribbean region are used to paying very high prices for car and truck parts, and waiting long periods of time before parts arrive. It is almost impossible to get high quality used parts. Our preliminary exploration indicates there is a large and steady market for new and used parts, primarily for Japanese vehicles. (Toyota, Honda and Nissan are the predominant brands in Dominica.) Our initial proposal is that parts would be shipped in containers and marketed through a chain of regional depots across the eastern Caribbean.
1. Pharmaceutical Sales — There is a growing market around the world for the internet-based sale and mail order distribution of prescription drugs that are not available in some countries. An example of this is Viagra, which was available in the U.S. long before it was approved for sale in Canada. Dominica law coupled with state-of-the-art telecommu-nications makes the set up of such an operation feasible and relatively easy to do both in Dominica and the Eastern Caribbean.