Plans in train to assist MSMEs

Minister of Energy, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Kerrie Symmonds is promising that a new approach is on the way for how some segments of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector in Barbados operate.

And he has thrown out a challenge to the Small Business Association (SBA) to consider leading a biannual review of the sector in order to ensure more up-to-date information to help in the decision-making process.

He made the comments on Tuesday as he echoed several plans being put in place by his Ministry to help sustain and grow the sector.

Symmonds was addressing the SBA’s state of the sector conference, the poster event for Small Business Week 2020, under the theme The Era of Digital Disruption — Thinking Beyond the Box.

Stressing the importance of the sector to economic activity and employment in Barbados, Symmonds pointed to a 2016 SBA survey, which showed that of some 10,000 businesses, about 92 per cent were small enterprises, four per cent medium-sized businesses and 3.6 per cent large firms.

“It is against that particular backdrop that I say there is an indisputable importance of the sector and it is desirable and necessary to have a state of the sector assessment taking place perhaps once every six months, so that we can set clear goals, objectives and take stock of the progress we are making in a very focused and direct manner,” he recommended.

Pointing out that the tourism sector had been “brought to its knees” by the pandemic, the former Tourism Minister said the notion that “the tourism industry will always be there to save us” was not necessarily the case.

“The Ministry of Energy, Small Business and Entrepreneurship wants to take fresh guard with this sector,” said Symmonds.

“We see that there is tremendous potential in the sector. We understand the pain and suffering in the country and . . . that immediate concern, that natural Barbadian concern about our fellow man, must be the engine and the fuel that galvanises us now to transform this economy in a way we never did before, even though we all knew it had to be done and we were contented ourselves to kick the can down the road.”

Pointing to plans on the cards to help different segments of the small business sector, Symmonds said lawmakers were preparing a “series” of legislation to help improve business facilitation.

The first one, he said, would be the awaited new and improved Liquor Licences Act that would allow for smoother and speedier processing of liquor licences.

He also hinted at legislation that would make way for a new model for taxi operators, that would allow them to legally be able to operate on any route and pick up more than one unrelated passenger at a time.

“We know that their business model is perhaps one of the greatest impediments to the urgent need for assistance that they have. What is that business model? They, in 2020, operate a business model that existed in 1966 when I was born, and that is, you sit and congregate in a car park, at a hotel, at the airport or in Bridgetown, and you hope for somebody to pass by and give you business, when we know there is the existence of disruptive technology. We must partner now with the private sector and facilitate the private sector.

“This creates job opportunities in small and micro enterprises where people can develop applications similar to those we know exist elsewhere and allow people to hail rides and allow us to have the rotating of taxi service across the town centres in Barbados . . . . You can be sharing rides and we keep the taxi people employed at a time when COVID-19 is rendering almost every one of them in a situation where they face economic disaster,” explained Symmonds.

Encouraging the MSME sector operators to become members of the Barbados National Standards Institution (BNSI), he said his Ministry was working on a national quality policy and it would ensure an enabling environment to help more MSME become export ready.

Giving the assurance that he was not just “running” his mouth, Symmonds also said his office was working on the facilitation of greater linkages between the MSME sector and that of tourism and greater use of technology.

He also disclosed that he was working on establishing a collateral registry – a centralised database that records all securities or collaterals of borrowers.

“It will allow people with moveable assets, for the first time in Barbados, to be in a position where they can pledge their asset against a loan, and that asset be securitised so that the lender knows that there is some certainty against that which they are lending,” he explained.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb