MINISTER of Small Business Development Donville Inniss is optimistic there will be “better business” in 2017 for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
Sharing his outlook in an interview with BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY, Inniss said the sector’s players must stop being small-minded, be innovative and creative.
“From my end and the state’s end, we need to be better facilitators of business and facilitation doesn’t mean doing somebody a favour, but creating a more level playing field, ensuring that goods and services to be provided to the state are certainly perhaps skewed more towards the sector in particular without doing harm to others, generally speaking,” he said.
“We also believe that 2017 would be a better year because of some of the programmes that we’ve already initiated such as the increased export drive that’s come about through the [Barbados Investment and Development Corporation], innovation programmes that the BIDC and others have embarked upon, and the continued dialogue about internationalisation of the sector.
“The other area is additional financing to be provided, not necessarily as grant financing but certainly to help stimulate more innovation, creativity, and business in this country.”
Inniss, who also has ministerial responsibility for international business and industry, said he was “pretty optimistic” about the business sector.
“I think people want to do better and that’s half of the task, the willingness to think positive and to be able to say ‘look, some people see these as challenges, some see them as opportunities’ and with that mindset I think we’re going to get there,” he added.
Furthermore, with the official launch of the new micro, small and medium enterprise strategic plan and policy guidelines set to take place in a few weeks by the Ministry of Small Business and Commerce, Inniss said the operators in the sector would be made aware of the incentives, “the kind of facilitation from the state’s end” and “a broader look at the kinds of matters” being addressed that would help the sector grow.
The minister said that together both businesses and Government have to focus on better access to financing.
The state was moving to addressed this through “a new round of financing to come to Fund Access and, hopefully, to the BIDC.”
He also advised business people to pay attention to their own organisation and dynamics, ensuring that they were “properly structured”.
“You’ve got to focus more on strategic alliances, working together instead of working apart from one another.
“You also need to work on a more cooperative spirit. You’re in one industry, I’m in another industry, what can we do to cooperate with each other, what can we do to drive the cost of doing business for us down,” said Inniss.
“And most importantly, we have not only to look at increasing the market share but also looking at a larger market.
“Stop being narrow-minded and feeling that the world revolves around Barbados. More micro, small and medium enterprises need to work to get into the Eastern Caribbean market, for example, with goods and services.”
“We also need to look a lot at innovation…I’m doing things a certain way now and I’ve been doing it that way for years, what more can I do, what new can I do to stay focused on my core business but perhaps do it differently.
“Innovation is not just about technology but about other things that come into play such as business processes for example,” said Inniss.(GBM)
