Caribbean Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Centre welcomed

THE newly launched Caribbean Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Centre is being endorsed by Minister of Energy, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Kerrie Symmonds, who says its establishment is timely.

Speaking during the virtual launch of the Centre, hosted by the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management and The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, Minister Symmonds said that given the challenges that come up in recent times, the Centre will be instrumental in helping businesses to advance. The minister made the point as he maintained that there is a need to “urgently resurrect” commercial activity in the countries across the Caribbean.

“These islands have been ravaged by three assaults – first and foremost, the COVID-induced pandemic, which has created a public health crisis in this region and obviously across the world, but we, being small open economies, have taken a hammering and con-sequent upon that, has been the implosion of our economies.”

He continued, “In almost every one of the incidences that I can think of where we have reached double-digit gross domestic product decline, we have been affected primarily because of our dependency on international travel.”

Symmonds said that the interruption of international travel and its impact on the Caribbean has been devastating. His comments came as he said that at least eight CARICOM member states are in the top 20 countries, which have suffered the worst declines in GDP performance over the last two years. Symmonds’ remarks were made as he noted that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in this country account for 95 per cent of the economic activity in Barbados, adding that there is a need to help them navigate the challenges of the present economic environment.

With that in mind, he said the new Centre can be of assistance to the MSME sector, as it has the capacity to conduct research and analysis that is necessary.

“...There is simply no capacity for us outside of the university to storehouse the relevant in-formation and harness the data capture that is necessary, without a partnership with The University of the West Indies... I genuinely believe that it is necessary for policymakers, not only in Barbados, but let us be frank, across the Eastern Caribbean, now to walk by sight and not only by faith. And we have to do this in a way that allows us to connect in a very direct manner with the cutting-edge research, so that we are in a position to help those people who we are elected to serve, better navigate the slings and arrows and pitfalls of modern economic activity in the Caribbean,” he stated. (JRT)