Minister of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Kerrie Symmonds says urgent action must be taken by Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean to “resurrect” commercial activity in the region.
And he has suggested a scientific approach to the process of rebuilding the micro, small and medium enterprise sectors, which had taken a hard hit with the “implosion” of regional economies due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Noting that micro, small and medium enterprises constituted 85 per cent of economic activity in Barbados, Symmonds said Governments would need to find alternative ways of funding such businesses, other than the traditional financial sources which often reacted negatively to funding requests because of their lack of confidence in the entrepreneur’s ability to manage a business.
“If we are to help those enterprises, we have to do so against the backdrop of sound research and evidence,” Symmonds said in his feature address at during Tuesday’s virtual launch of the Caribbean Micro Small and Medium Enterprise Centre at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus. (GC)
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