Laziness will not be condoned when it comes to the management and facilitation of business development services by state agencies, especially those which cater to Small Micro Enterprises (SMEs).

Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss, made this abundantly clear this morning, while addressing the three-day Certificate of Training Workshop for Small Business Development Centre (SBDC) Counsellors and Directors in the Implementation of the Small Business Development Model at the Savannah Hotel.

Before an audience that included key small business players, the Minister offered some stern advice to business development officers, telling them that they needed to ???step up??? their actions as they could no longer do effective business development services while functioning like ???a desk bound civil servant of years ago.???

He said: ???You need to roll up your sleeves, get out there and know your clients, provide a timely and professional service to them or take leave and go into a
different area.??? The Minister further stressed that he would not settle for ???mediocrity??? when it came to business development services.

???The small business sector, as you may appreciate, is one of Government???s economic pillars to provide growth for the Barbados economy. While this has been the thinking of successive Governments, the role and importance of the sector has taken on new prominence as Barbados seeks to fight its way out of this prolonged recession that has been weighing us down,??? he contended.

Pointing out that it could not be business as usual, Mr. Inniss was adamant that the country could not continue to operate in the same fashion if it intended to maximise on the returns from the small business sector.

He stressed that it was imperative to heighten the performance and viability of the sector so that it might reach its full potential, thus enabling it to contribute to a higher level of economic and social development.

In addition, the Minister told those gathered that the Small Business Development Unit of his Ministry has, through research, recommended an alternate way for delivering services to the sector through the adoption and adaptation of the soon to be implemented United States SBDC Model, thus improving upon the different elements that comprised a good entrepreneurial climate.

theresa.blackman@barbados.gov.bb

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