Grenada

Grenada is an island nation in the Caribbean located in the Grenadines that is composed of three main islands—Granada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique—and is an upper middle-income country with a GDP of 1.16 billion USD in 2018. Known as the Isle of Spice, the country of Grenada has an agricultural sector that accounts for 6.8% of GDP; the main agricultural and fisheries products include bananas, cocoa, nutmeg, soursop, and fish. As Grenada is increasingly being affected by a variety of climate change related issues that impact the activities of the agricultural and fishing industries, opportunities to address the impacts of climate change in these Grenadian industries through novel development solutions are available. Grenada also supports an industrial sector that is responsible for 15.5% of GDP and includes industries such as construction as well as a light manufacturing industry that produces processed food and beverages, textiles, and animal feed.

The largest segment of the Grenadian economy is the service sector, which makes up 77.7% of the country’s GDP. The main industries in Grenada’s service sector are education and tourism. Education in Grenada is largely driven by the privately run St. George’s University, which offers a variety of degrees in medicine and the sciences as well as in the arts and business. Likewise, tourism in Grenada is one of the leading industries in the country, which in 2017 saw 455,682 visitor arrivals. As the tourism industry in Grenada has a significant ecotourism component, there are opportunities to collaborate in the sustainable development of the industry.

Grenada also supports a growing startup community that has numerous supports available for growing businesses, such as incubators, impact investment networks, and government funding programs. Currently, startups in Grenada are mainly based in the technology sector, with a special focus in information and communication technology. Nonetheless, the commitment made by the Government of Grenada to sustainably develop the blue economy means collaborating with Grenada’s startup community across a wide range of sectors is possible, such as tourism and the fisheries. Lastly, there is a citizenship by investment program administered by the Government of Grenada that allows for investors to gain citizenship by donating to the National Transformation Fund, which is used to support development projects across the island nation.