Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Business Sandra Husbands has given the assurance that the Government is working on putting the relevant measures in place to make it easier for persons to do business in Barbados.
Noting that small business owners continue to be frustrated with the bureaucracy associated with getting business done on the island with some of them even giving up on their dreams because of it, Husbands said the current Barbados Labour Party (BLP) is changing the systems and processes of government to make it easier for entrepreneurs to innovate and to get their products and services to market.
“We have pursued a course of digitization to take the ordinary things that you have to do when you have to interact with government agencies, to try to take the time and the difficulty, the complexity, the confusion out of it, and create a simple easy process for you to engage. Our Ministry, just a month ago, launched with UNCTAD [United Nations Conference on Trade and Development] the process that would start the electronic single window.
“An electronic single window is an online programme that allows you, if you have to register a business, if you have to get a licence, if you have to apply for something, that you can do it one stop from your bedroom. And what we want to be able to do is to allow you to focus more of your time and your energy in taking your innovative ideas forward rather than spending time in long lines waiting and then weeks later calling and getting no response,” Husbands said.
The minister addressed the issue of making doing business easier for entrepreneurs and stakeholders in the business community on Monday, when she delivered remarks at the opening of the Innovative Thinkers in Business workshop, held at the Centre for Hybrid Studies, Spirit Bond, Wharf Road, in The City.
The Pinelands Creative Workshop has partnered with the Small Business Association of Barbados to host a four-day training programme from September 12 to 15 which aims to teach the youth how to be creative innovative thinkers. The workshops, catering to those between ages 15 and 35, are free and open to the general public in an effort to help young persons learn how they can adapt their business ideas in the ever-changing business environment.
Husbands encouraged participants to follow their dreams of becoming successful business owners, and she assured them that Government would be with them on the journey. The minister said that she looked forward to the ministry having closer collaboration with the Small Business Association and Pinelands Creative Workshop to host similar initiatives across Barbados.
“There are many other young people hiding in the shadows with ideas who don’t know where to turn with that idea, afraid that somebody will steal it from them; afraid that it would get laughed at, or afraid that they would fail before they can make it to market.
“We want to change that and I look forward to collaborating with both the Small Business Association, the Pinelands Creative Workshop and some of the other players who have laboured in their vineyard for years trying to bring relief to our small business people; to bring opportunity to ordinary people in our community to allow them to participate in our economy and to have the hope of benefiting just as well as many others have benefited,” Husbands said.
Chief Executive Officer of Pinelands Creative Workshop, Sophia Greaves-Broome, said the workshop would allow the organisation to share new models, systems and alternative thinking that will unleash the participants’ creativity and spark new innovative approaches that will broaden their mindsets and perspectives as well as set their businesses apart from their competitors’.
“Over the four-day training workshop, we want the participants to be eager to learn and openly welcome the new knowledge that would be imparted to them as it would assist them in adapting their businesses to the changing business environment. Moreover, Pinelands Creative Workshop hopes that the participants leave the training workshops having competitive advantages,” Greaves-Broomes said. (AH)
