{"id":15366,"date":"2011-11-22T10:12:53","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T15:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=15366"},"modified":"2011-11-22T11:01:04","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T16:01:04","slug":"baic-survey-reveals-lacking-belief-in-online-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2011\/11\/baic-survey-reveals-lacking-belief-in-online-benefits","title":{"rendered":"BAIC Survey Reveals Lacking Belief In Online Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15395\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15395\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15395\" title=\"straw-market\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/straw-market.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/straw-market.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/straw-market-150x112.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15395\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New Straw Market. Guardian file photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In preparation for rolling out the online platform for straw market vendors, the committee in charge of the venture has completed a Family Island Associations Survey.<\/p>\n<p>The key discovery? Bahamians have a long way to go in discovering the power of the Internet.<\/p>\n<p>The report, still in its review stage, reveals that only 16 percent of those surveyed in the handicraft industry believe an online presence can help them improve profits.<\/p>\n<p>Don Demeritte, a lead consultant with the Bahamas Agriculture and Industrial Corporation (BAIC), said the power of the Internet must be realized.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019re talking about bringing two different cultures together,\u201d he told Guardian Business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe market in downtown Nassau is more fast-paced. On the islands, it\u2019s more about training, preparing and waiting for opportunities. From what I saw, about 16 percent saw it as a means of really increasing profits. We need to educate Bahamians on the power of the Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that most people surveyed \u201cdid not understand the depth and enormity\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The pilot project involved seven Family Islands, Demeritte explained, including Mayaguana, Crooked Island, Long Island and Exuma, among others.<\/p>\n<p>The study showed that islands closer to the U.S. and Nassau tend to have easier access to the marketplace and better structures in place to produce and move the products.<\/p>\n<p>The online platform initiative is being funded through a $313,000 grant from Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with the remaining funds coming from BAIC.<\/p>\n<p>A total of $500,000 will be spent on software, website development, staffing, training, research and fact finding.<\/p>\n<p>The latter was the purpose behind the recent seven-island survey, Demeritte added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recently completed BAIC survey for the new straw vendors website revealed that only 16 per cent in the handicraft industry believe in the benefits of being online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[37,69,169],"class_list":["post-15366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-crafts","tag-internet","tag-straw-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}