SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED enterprises (SMEs) in the Caribbean need help in order to solidify the growth of authentic Caribbean companies, says a top regional executive.
And governments and the private sector within the region should step forward to ensure this happens for businesses that employ 40 to 50 per cent of the Caribbean workforce outside the public sector, said Gerry Brooks, chief operating officer of ANSA McAL.
Brooks, who is one of the senior executives with the regional conglomerate, made the submission during the recently held 184th annual general meeting of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry, at Hilton Barbados, where he also noted, “These are the most vulnerable to external competition.”
Using Jamaican SMEs as an example, he said they were starved for working capital. As for operators in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, the cost of capital was high and there was no ready access to equity capital.
In his homeland Trinidad and Tobago, Brooks said, manufacturers lacked the scale, size and capacity to compete with North American producers.
“Often the cost of going public is too administratively demanding or simply too costly. With the right support, greater Caribbean entrepreneurship can be released.
“Given their economic and commercial importance, modalities must be put in place to transition micro business to small business, small to large, and conglomerates to international players.
“Some specific initiatives should include reducing the cost of capital and development of tertiary-level programmes designed to enhance productivity and competitiveness,” he added. (SR)
