The National Export Council (NEC) has refuted claims by the PRO of the Dominica Manufacturers Association (DMA), that the association was excluded from an NEC-organized trade and cultural exposition held in Guadeloupe recently.
The event, dubbed Semaine de La Dominique or Dominica Week, was held in the commune of Le Lamentin from the 3rd to the 7th of December.
Speaking on DBS Radio, Public Relations Officer of the DMA, Severin Mc Kenzie, said he was disappointed that his organization was excluded from such an event and he hopes that it was an oversight.
However, NEC Chairman, McCarthy Marie, has described Mckenzie’s statement as “completely and totally false.” He told DNO that the NEC sent invitations for the Guadeloupe event to the president of the manufacturer’s association in three different emails, “and we have no idea what is their arrangement internally for communication among their members, so if he (Mckenzie), wasn’t aware, it’s not because we didn’t send it to the association; it’s because there was a problem within (DMA) about internal communication,” Marie stated.
Executive Assistant at the National Export Council Secretariat (NECS), Hilda Kelshall, provided DNO with details of the content and dates of the emails sent by the NEC to the DMA. “On August 16th correspondence was sent to Mr. Guthrie, DMA’s president and other stakeholders via email and attached to that email was a concept paper on the trade and cultural exposition which was going to be held in Guadeloupe.We invited him to a meeting on August 22nd which was later postponed to August 28th,” she explained.
According to Kelshall, Guthrie did not attend that meeting nor did he provide any comments on the concept paper. She said on September 12, the NECS also sent another email to the president of the DMA informing him of the postponement of the trade and cultural exposition from the initial dates of 15th to 19th October, to December 3rd to 7th.
“Again in November, November the 8th, the DMA president was invited to another meeting to finalize details as related to the trade and cultural exposition.I can say here that although there were members of DMA present at that meeting, Mr. Guthrie was not present at that meeting.”
Kelshall said several Dominica companies which met the criteria for participation, attended the Dominica Week event in Guadeloupe. “We had Bello, Benjo…Benjo Seamoss, Caribbean Agro-producers Ltd and Dominica Essential Oils and these are members of DMA.”
She said it was ” rather unfortunate” that Mckenzie would make such a public statement “without the facts”.
” We hope that this will clear the air on the matter as we seek to work with all manufacturers in our move towards increasing exports”, the NECS official stated.
The fact of the matter is, the DMA was not involved, Mack Marie should just accept that basic fact and improve on his method of communication. So it was an oversight not to realize that email was not good enough.
emailing is a formal method of commnication. Obviously, not only the Association was invited but so was individual members. If businesses want to pay for email service and not pay it proper attention that is their problem. The people emailed them three times on the matter. Dont tell me it went to junk because DMA is a member of NEC.
DMA is not a member of the NEC. Some of the DMA members took part in the NEC program. The email was sent to the wrong address. In all aspects, if you really want the DMA to play a part, a follow up phone call works, just to ensure the email was received. Professionalism was not practiced here.
This seems so childish to me
What if the email went to the junk mail folder or the spam folder as opposed to the inbox. not everyone checks those. A follow when you have not received a response is usually customary. That being said I think it’s being blown out of proportion to reach the news outlet. this is something which could have easily been solved internally.
Emails, emails, emails. What happened to the forms of communication which existed before emails? I think the most appropriate thing to do was follow up with a call since you realizxed that Mr. Gutherie was not responding to your emails. Or, you could contact Mr. McKenzie who is the PRO of the the DMA.
Instead of doing that you already concluded that there is a problem in the DMA. That’s very unprofessional!
DNO: “She said it was ‘rather unfortunate’ that Mckenzie would make such a public statement ‘without the facts’.”
Thanks, DNO, for publishing this response from the NEC.
Now that we have “the other side of the story”, let the finger-pointing, malicious attacks, and stupidity continue.
Part of our problem in Dominica is that people no longer speak directly to each other but through an intermediary. The talk-show culture has mushroomed and it is in part to be blamed. Instead of calling the agency directly responsible for a particular matter, persons take the longer route of calling a talk show host in the hope that the host will miraculously provide answers. (Or, probably the callers do not seek answers but instead are pursuing a political agenda.)
Another matter is therefore, the political agenda of certain persons. They would make public their grievances in the hope of scoring political points rather than communicate directly with their counterparts and genuinely seek solutions to what ails them.
Apart from exposing the possible communication break-down within the DMA, the NEC’s response has illuminated a wider social problem that has evolved in Dominica in the last 15 years, or so.
I agree! Well put
For once, I’m on McMarie’s side! Never thought i’d live to see this day. Mr. McKenzie must learn to do his due diligence before he come public with his accusations.
Unnecessary dabah! Let’s all work together people
I fully support the objectives of the Manufacturers Association. However, Mr Mc Kenzie is carrying too much baggage and is doing a disservice to the Association by his arrogant utterances. Salesmanship is not the same as Showmanship. I urge Dominicans to support the buy local trade show that is being organised.
McKenzie has contributed to the development of Dominica more than you will ever dream of.
He employs the children of Laborites, creates employment and is working his guts out to rejuvenate a slaughtered manufacturing industry.
What baggage is McKenzie carrying, yes helping to put Labor Party in office.
Stop the politics folks!
“he employs the children of Laborites”?? lmao really dude? did you just say that? …and WTF is that supposed to mean?
Ok so Mr. Marie sent emails. The wise thing to do was to follow up with a call, especially since having the Manufacturers Association part of this expo makes all the sense in the world.
A nice “hello we sent you an email on the expo” could have prevented this
A phone call would have been nice, but the blame rests with the DMA.
Ok…
Issues, issues, & personal issues before National Interest?? ?? What a thing! smh
We are our own enemies, unfortunately.
Issues before Interests Calypso 2013
You are so right . Let pray for them. Too much unnecessary politics !