Minister of State in Foreign Trade and Business, Sandra Husbands, has stressed the importance of Barbados’ micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) working together and having high standards, as the way to sustain local businesses.
She reiterated this view while delivering a message to mark World MSME Day, today, June 27, via a video presentation.
Minister Husbands noted that as Government seeks to encourage citizens to become resilient, it is also encouraging businesses to do the same, by being adaptable to change, whether it is as a result of climate or social conditioning.
“We must learn how best to innovate, to re-invent and re-imagine ourselves, and to circumvent any attempts to place us at the periphery of entrepreneurial inclusion. In this regard, our remit must be grounded in the willingness to embrace the call for a quality standards infrastructure, where both our businesses and community of practice are driven by the importance of quality and standards.
“Quality must, therefore, pave the way for new frontiers in MSME and entrepreneurial development, even as we explore opportunities occasioned by artificial intelligence, agri-business, cybersecurity, civil aviation, renewable energy, and medical tourism,” she stated.
In addition, Ms. Husbands added that entrepreneurs must be willing to forge synergies with strategic partners of choice that would enable the advancement of innovation, growth and sustainability of not only their businesses, but also “give rise to a collaborative spirit of meaningful problem-solving” that would benefit national development.
The Minister noted: “To do otherwise, will be to create an environment where the absence of cooperation will only result in the presence of failure, and where lack of intentional effort will give way to voluntary chaos…. Amongst and within our MSMEs, we must not encourage behaviours that divide, rather, we must embrace those that cause us to work together.”
She said there was an urgent need to “scale-up” local enterprises, not only in terms of nurturing and growing from micro to small, small to medium, and medium to large enterprises, but to have a greater appreciation for the need to transition to a higher level, spurred by a culture of export-readiness.
“My call to our MSMEs is therefore to seize this moment in time as an opportunity to reset both your thinking and your practice; to embrace your uniqueness, leverage your collective brilliance, and create new pathways for personal and national wealth generation and global influence. .
“So as we navigate this uncertain global market space, let us use World MSME Day 2023 to celebrate our greatness, and to remind ourselves that failure is only the result of an unwillingness to try, while effort is only undone by the failure to step out in hope,” Minister Husbands urged.