DLP: Govt neglecting small businesses

THE DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY (DLP) says the Government is neglecting small businesses and wants to know how the money it said was for the sector is being disbursed.

Ryan Walters, the party’s spokesman on business and entrepreneurship, said that it was unclear how business persons can access the promised $30 million to support their ventures.

In the September 15, Throne Speech it was revealed that $20 million of the amount would be made available through FundAccess and $10 million through the Trust Loan Fund.

“However, there seems to be an apparent lack of communication and dialogue with major players in this sector and the average business owner on how the funds can be accessed. The Democratic Labour Party is asking once more, like it did more than a month ago, how will the $20 million to FundAccess and the $10 million to the Trust Loan Fund be used to assist small businesses,” asked Walters.

The first vice-president of the party also wanted to know whether there will low-interest-bearing loans, grants or a combination and how potential borrowers can qualify.

He said the treatment being meted out to the sector was unacceptable and pointed to what he said was the failed stimulus package of April 29 when only $5 million was spent out of $268.5 million.

Tight-lipped approached

“…And now a tight-lipped approach to how $30 million will be distributed. We have heard over and over the current minister [Minister of Small Business and Entrepreneurship] and his predecessor articulate the importance of this sector when it suited them to do so, but yet we have not seen a clearly executed strategy to rescue failing businesses and keep existing businesses afloat during this time,” Walters said.

He accused the Government of having no strategy to identify how the small business sector, if given adequate support, will help the economy, adding that it had not been articulated by any minister how small businesses were already assisting with reducing unemployment.

Clear vision

“The Government must come to accept that small business is also assisting in stimulating the circulation of money within the economy so that average Barbadians can earn an income and a living until we resume to some level of normalcy over the next 12 to 18 months. If there was a clear vision for this sector, we would see a reduction in the number of small businesses closing, we would see less persons being laid off, we would see more customers coming through the doors of small businesses, we would see more opportunity for Government to earn tax revenue at the port and through the sale of goods by way of VAT, we would recognise some revenue going into the NIS [National Insurance Scheme] and there are more benefits,” Walters said.

Government, he said, was failing to use the financial resources available to it in a meaningful way.

“Borrowing more and more money, but for what purpose? Their actions have clearly shown that they have decided to go the headline route and not the execution route. The DLP is suggesting that the Minister of Small Business and Entrepreneurship formulate a clear strategy to assist and develop small business and entrepreneurship during this gloomy economic environment. A sector that provides 92 per cent of the formal business in the private sector and 60 per cent employment in the private sector should not be sidelined and left to fend for itself,” he said. (AC)

DLP’S SPOKESMAN on business and entrepreneurship, Ryan Walters (FP)