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Ryan Walters, spokesman for the DLP on Business and Entrepreneurship and 1st Vice President Ryan Walters.

Democratic Labour Party demands answers

The Democratic Labour Party is demanding answers on the how small businesses will be given assistance by Fund Access and the Trust Loan fund.

According to the recent Throne Speech, Fund Access and the Trust Loan fund a re to be given $20 million and $10 million respectively to help support small finesses and entrepreneurs.

However, spokesman for the DLP on Business and Entrepreneurship and 1st Vice President Ryan Walters is saying there seems to be an apparent lack of communication and dialogue with major players in this sector and the average business owner on how the funds can be accessed.

“The Democratic Labour Party is asking once more – like it did more than a month ago – how will the $20M to Fund Access and the $10M to the Trust loan fund be used to assist small businesses? What financial instruments will be available to business owners who need assistance? Will there be low interest bearing loans? will there be grants? or will there be a combination of both? What is the qualifying criteria for businesses to be approved and is there a timeline for applications to be submitted by?” he queried.

Walters, a businessman, knocked the treatment being meted out to the small business sector, calling it “unacceptable”.

“First, with the failed stimulus package of April 29 when only $5 million was spent out of $268.5 million and now a tight lipped approach to how $30 million will be distributed; We have heard over and over the current Minister and his predecessor articulate the importance of this sector when it suited them to do so, but yet we have not seen a clearly executed strategy to rescue failing businesses and keep existing businesses afloat during this time. Is the assumption that small business and entrepreneurs do not need help?” he stressed.

Walters claimed there was no visible strategy showing how the sector will help the economy once it is given adequate support in appropriate areas.

He further said the government has not articulated that small businesses are already assisting with reducing unemployment and can do much more given the necessary support, adding that government must accept that small business is also assisting in stimulating the circulation of money within the economy, so that average Barbadians can earn an income and a living until the country returns to some level of normalcy over the next 12 to 18 months.

He stated, “If there was a clear vision for this sector, we would see a reduction in the number of small businesses closing, we would see less persons being laid off, we would see more customers coming through the doors of small businesses, we would see more opportunity for government to earn tax revenue at the port and through the sale of goods by way of VAT, we would recognise some revenue going into the NIS and there are more benefits.

Saying government is failing to use the financial resources being made available to them in a meaningful way, he questioned “Borrowing more and more money but for what purpose? Their actions have clearly shown that they have decided to go the headline route and not the execution route.

“The DLP is suggesting that the Minister of Small Business and Entrepreneurship formulate a clear strategy to assist and develop small business and entrepreneurship during this gloomy economic environment. A sector that provides 92 percent of the formal business in the private sector and 60 percent employment in the private sector should not be sidelined and left to fend for itself,” he said.

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