This country’s Minister of Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Business Development, Senator Lynette Eastmond, will next month, address a luncheon of the business referral organisation “Business Network International” (BNI) at the Dining Club, Manor Lodge.
BNI, offers members an opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, referrals.
Senator Eastmond, whose portfolio deals with Business Development has been advocating for firms to become “competitive in the light of increasing competitiveness internationally; within a context of a reduction of access to preferences; and the reduction in value of preferences to which they continue to access”.
National Director of BNI, Curtis Belgrave, said “our concept of networking is based on our philosophy ‘givers gain’; so if I give you business, you will want to give me business and we both will do better business.”
Senator Eastmond recently noted that it was a fact that universally more businesses failed than succeeded. According to her, it was true, for many years, business was not conducted in a competitive environment and that it was more conducive to the existence of large businesses and not the entry and survival of new small enterprises.
“We can say very broadly that this was as a result of the business culture. By the introduction of business programmes ranging from the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme to the Innovation Fund to the Enterprise Growth Fund to technical assistance, we have sought to change that environment,” she said.