Be competitive, St Lucia minister tells Caribbean meeting on small businesses

St Lucia’s Trade and Industry Minister Guy Mayers told a Pan Caribbean Commonwealth workshop on the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the region that if the sector is to survive, it will have to be competitive.

"The art of survival in this era is to be competitive. The way we do business will have to change, and the approach of taking business as usual has to become a thing of the past," Mr Mayers said at the opening of the two day workshop which has attracted participants from 12 Commonwealth Caribbean countries and regional organisations.

The meeting which took place in Castries, the capital of St Lucia on 27 May 2008, was organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce.

Mr Mayers said that SMEs are a cornerstone of small states, as they provide employment opportunities and contribute to the alleviation of poverty.

Participants heard that SMEs in the region face many challenges including a lack of access to finance, market information, poor business planning, weak accounting ability, and low quality of human resources.

Not good enough to lament challenges

But David Ashiagbor, an Economic adviser with the Secretariat, said that it is not good enough to sit down and lament the various challenges facing the sector.

"What we hope to achieve at this meeting is to share experiences and research how other countries in the Commonwealth and the region - who are facing similar challenges have been able to address them and move forward - and then pick practical lessons that we can use on the ground," Mr Ashiagbor said.

Mr Ashiagbor shared with the participants an initiative the Commonwealth is undertaking in South Africa to generate and capture information about small contractors in the building industry. This initiative enables them to generate relevant data, such as credit history, performance profile, upon which banks and other funding agencies can base their decisions when assessing requests for finance from the small scale builders.

Constance Vigilance an adviser with the Secretariat who focuses on Small States added that the Secretariat is committed to advocating for policies that ensure growth of SMEs in small states through provision of technical assistance, information sharing, research findings and best practices.

The meeting also heard from Professor Annie Koh from Singapore Management University on how her country has been able to develop a policy framework that has supported the development of the services sector.

Key Links:

• Country Profile: St Lucia