Brand intelligently, expert tells Samoa

For Samoa to be able to trade effectively, it must brand itself intelligently, says Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (I.T.C), Arancha Gonzalez.

Ms. Gonzalez is in Samoa attending the 2014 Third Small Island Developing States (S.I.D.S.) conference, which ended last night.

Earlier this week, she featured in a side event in partnership with the government of Samoa about Integrating Women Entrepreneurs in Small Island Developing States into the Global Economy.

“Now in a small island like Samoa, or a small island like Tonga, anywhere in the Pacific where size is a limitation, I think the answer is to invest (in) efforts to make sure your economic operators capture a greater part of the value in country,” she said.

“So you try to add value to the assets that you have. These islands have amazing assets. Agriculture is a huge asset in these islands, with a rich biodiversity, one that to my mind has not been fully exploited yet.”

She said there was a way not to work on quantities, on bulk, not to work on trying economies of a scale, which is very complicated when you have such a small size.

“But rather trying to work on value addition and for that branding is an amazing tool to do that,” said Ms. Gonzalez.

“And using brand Samoa in an intelligent way. Whether it is to brand yourself as a tourist destination, whether it is to brand the coconut oil that you produce, whether it is to brand the tapas that you produce so incredibly."

“Countries have to invest. Samoa has to invest on brand Samoa, which is a big part of being able to capture a greater part of the value of international trade.”

Ms. Gonzalas said she thinks trade in the 21st century is as much about tariff as it is about non-tariff barriers.

“Standards, regulations, precautionary measures, preventative measures, prudential regulations and that is much more difficult,” she said.

“This is why I say for trade to work, you have to open trade you have to open trade, but you also have to build the capacity of your operators to trade.”

Yesterday, Ms. Gonzalez announced a procurement partnership between I.T.C. and Samoa where the Government has to buy from women entrepreneurs.

In an interview with sidslive.com, she said through the partnership they would focus on value adding to the products the women produce looking specifically at product standards, packaging and labeling.

She said the reason this project was so important was that only one per cent of global procurement goes to women.

“Women re-invest 90 per cent of their revenue… in their societies, in their families, in their communities, compared to 40 per cent of men entrepreneurs,” she said.

“It is not just because it is fair or right, but because it makes sense.”