Staff at the St Lucia Development Bank receive training on small business financing activities.
‘Robust framework’ aims to help small business community in St Lucia
28 January 2010
Central Bank of India assists the St Lucia Development Bank at Commonwealth Secretariat’s behest
Small businesses in St Lucia are set to benefit after the Caribbean country’s newly established Development Bank received ten weeks’ training from one of India’s largest government-owned commercial banks.
The Central Bank of India (CBI) ploughed in US$50,000 and two full-time senior staff to help the St Lucia Development Bank (SLDB) update their policies and procedures which affect the island’s small business community.
Central Bank of India
The CBI is one of India’s largest government-owned commercial banks, employing over 36,000 staff across 3,200 branches in India. CBI, which has an annual balance sheet of US$50 billion, has been focusing on financing the development of micro, small and medium enterprises, besides providing rural enterprises with growth opportunities through innovative financing mechanisms. It is the Official Banking Partner for the Commonwealth Games 2010.
As well as the SLDB, local credit unions and micro-finance institutions also benefited from this training, which was facilitated by the Commonwealth Secretariat.
“We hope that the experience and expertise that my colleagues have shared with the SLDB and other institutions in St Lucia will help them develop a sustainable small business financing programme in the country,” said Srinivasan Sridhar, Chairman and Managing Director of the Central Bank of India.
“Having visited St Lucia personally, I can see that through our interventions and those of the Commonwealth Secretariat, a robust framework for micro and small business financing activities in St Lucia has been established.”
Jacqueline Emmanuel, Director of the Office of Private Sector Relations in St Lucia, welcomed the “timely assistance”.
She commented: “The opportunity to dialogue with and tap into the experience of the Central Bank of India to see what best practices they have developed and their experience in the area of small business financing will certainly provide a new dimension towards the development and attitude of [small business financing initiatives] in St Lucia.”
Jean Francois Sonson, Managing Director of SLDB, also welcomed the opportunity to share experiences and learn from the CBI’s long history of working in small business finance.
“As a new development bank, opportunities for learning and adopting best practices are very welcomed,” he said. “We look forward to building on those partnerships in the future in the service of our marginalised people and micro and small businesses in St Lucia.”
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