Guyanese-American Chamber seeking ways to support local small businesses
Against the backdrop of the June 27 United Nations-designated Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day the Guyanese-American Chamber of Commerce says in a media release that both the Guyana and United States governments must seek to enhance their efforts to nurture micro-, small and medium-sized enterprise development. Simultaneously, the Chamber is also calling on commercial banks and other financial institutions to “support the strengthening of the systemic productive capacities among small businesses through the provision of concessional financing.”
Noting that this year United Nations Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day is being commemorated against the backdrop of the advent of the global Covid-19 pandemic, the statement noted that these enterprises account for more than 90% of all businesses and around 70% of jobs worldwide and that, accordingly, these play “a pivotal role in stimulating economic growth and providing employment for vulnerable groups such as women, young entrepreneurs, and poor communities.”
Noting that agri-businesses including small-food processors and farmers in Guyana have been particularly impacted by the pandemic, the GACC says that it has embarked on consultations with “relevant agencies in the US “to examine ways in which assistance can be provided to these micro and small enterprises “in both Guyana and the US in their recovery efforts.” The statement noted the Guyanese exporters had been negatively affected by the lockdown under which the US had been placed and which had also had a negative impact on Guyanese exporters.
Against this backdrop, the GACC says that it has been pursuing consultations with relevant agencies in the US to examine ways in which assistance can be provided to these micro- and small-business enterprises in both Guyana and the US in their recovery efforts. This, the GACC says, “is even more critical given the employment opportunities which small and medium sized enterprises generate.”
Local small- and micro-enterprises have been seriously affected by the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic and the effect that it has had on loss of jobs and closure of businesses. Setting aside the challenges that have confronted small farmers resulting from the need to put protective mechanisms in place and more recently, work stoppages resulting from the near countrywide flooding, their challenge has been rendered more difficult by the fact that that as a group they benefit from no umbrella representation, including lobbying support from any of the existing local Business Support Organizations.
Local small businesses in the agro-processing sector have been badly hit by loss of markets resulting mostly from reduced income among customers who have themselves been affected by loss of income.
Here in Guyana, government’s track record on support for small businesses has been limited to the passage of the Small Business Act in the National Assembly in 2004 and the subsequent creation of the Small Business Bureau in 2013, though it is widely accepted that the extent of state funding to the Bureau to help finance small business operations is far too meagre to support the growing number of micro and small businesses across the country.
Other initiatives that have been touted to help better position small and mediumsized businesses to grow have been unable to get off the ground on account of official prevarication.
Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day is a United Nations international observance held annually on June 27. It was officially inaugurated in April 2017 by the UN General Assembly by its resolution 71/279.