Plan to rebuild, rebrand Barbados is crucial

Minister of Energy, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Kerrie Symmonds has said that the 2020/2021 Estimates are tailored towards a programme of economic recovery for Barbados.

Symmonds was the first to speak during debate on Appropriations Bill which dealt with his Ministry, which for the next financial year has been allocated an amount of $34.36 million.

Noting that the House of Assembly was meeting under the shadow of COVID-19, the Minister said that the pandemic had caused an implosion in the country’s economy.

According to him, Barbados’ gross domestic product had declined by $1.59 billion during the last financial year.

As such, he indicated that economic recovery has to be in the context of sustaining business, the financial well-being of households and the creation wherever possible of economic activity.

He stated that there has to be a plan to rebuild and to rebrand Barbados.

Symmonds, who is also the MP for St. James Central, said that the issue of generating and creating economic activity is perhaps more important now than ever before, and certainly since independence in 1966.

He said the Ministry was established in July last year and that the well-being of the micro and small and medium sized enterprises (MSME) are at the core of the ministry’s business and for those activities to reach export levels.

The Minister pointed out that to achieve the specific objectives   to rebuild the economy, there are a number of strategic goals drawn between the Division of Commerce and Small Business and Entrepreneurship on one hand and the Division of Energy and Natural Resources on the other.

“What we have to try our best to facilitate [is] the capture of the SMEs and to get an understanding of their economic impact,” he maintained.

Referring to a 2016 study of the small and medium sized enterprises sector, the Minister said that although it is dated, it reflected that 92 per cent of the sector comprised micro small and medium enterprises. At that time, he said, the sector employed about 46 000 persons. Furthermore approximately 42 per cent of those enterprise recorded annual sales of being less than $100 000.

The message from those statistics indicated to him that it is necessary for Barbados to have real time information that policymakers can work with.

“The second thing it tells me is that the margins under which those entrepreneurs are operating under are very slender,” Minister Symmonds declared. As such, he went on, there is no wriggle room or space really for operational changes and for entrepreneurs to deal with conditions like COVID, and that slender margins mean vulnerability.

The St. James Central MP stated that while he is unable to say the level of employment in the sector, it us abundantly clear that we are talking about thousands of persons existing in a state of contingency.

Noting that this is something that has to be dealt with if both the sector and the country are to be moved into acceptable levels of competitiveness, Symmonds pointed out that there must be registration across the sector.

The effort to register businesses must be formalised, digitalised and modernised. Such is important so as to target funding which is developmental.

He recalled that between October last year and currently the Government has raised some $22 million through supplementaries  for the micro and MSMEs in Barbados.

He also spoke to the issue of training, noting that the Estimates have committed funds to financial literacy to ensure not only business continuity but also inter-generational wealth.

Symmonds said that there must be an understanding of what is a business plan and how it is designed, an understanding of a marketing plan and how that is drawn up, an understanding of share ownership and equity financing, and an understanding of a business plan. (JB)