Exciting year for business development in SVG

25.JAN.08

Business Rendezvous for January 2008

The management and staff of the Centre for Enterprise Development Inc. take this opportunity to wish the business community here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines a productive and profitable year. We hope that for all of you, 2008 would see greater increases in your profit margins and we would witness a booming and dynamic private sector driving economic growth and development in this country.{{more}}

For us at the Centre for Enterprise Development Inc. this year promises to be an exciting one as we focus on the implementation of the Business Gateway Project. Already, we are moving at a fast pace, diving right into the implementation of project activities. The Business Gateway financing is certainly going to help us to provide the business community with much needed assistance in several areas of business development. At a time when strategies focus on economic diversification, this can only serve to further boost efforts towards entrepreneurship, self-employment and wealth creation. We especially look forward to enhancing our youth and community entrepreneurship programmes and to begin the first ever business incubation programme in the history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Business Gateway project offers the local private sector an extraordinary opportunity to engage in a gamut of activities that would support their growth and development. Through the project, businesses here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines would be assisted with the development of their human resources, business processes and operations, products i.e. goods and services. While businesses can attend the training and development programmes that are organised by CED, they can also make requests on behalf of their individual businesses for direct assistance based on their perceived needs from business planning, pre-feasibility and market studies to marketing, financial management and product development. CED particularly welcomes requests for assistance in the areas of product research and development. We want to encourage those businesses and individuals who may have a product that has potential for export to contact us so we can work together to take that product forward.

At the same time, as we as a Nation work towards selling products internationally, the implementation of good manufacturing practices and Hazard Analysis, Critical Control Points (HACCP) are areas of our businesses that must be addressed immediately. Those involved in manufacturing industries have an ideal opportunity to receive help in these areas. The Business Gateway is supportive of such efforts and looks forward to receive proposals of such initiatives.

Many institutions in St. Vincent and the Grenadines that provide help to the private sector suffer from a lack of capacity. In many instances, while institutions are willing to do more, they do not have individuals with the requisite skills to do so. The lack of finance to support training and development of human resources means that many of them function well below capability. The Business Gateway Project will support institutional strengthening activities. Agencies in the private sector as well as public sector, providing business development services can approach the Gateway Project for assistance to develop the capacity of their staff.

For more information, please contact the Business Gateway at the Centre for Enterprise Development Inc. We are located on the First Floor Methodist Building, Granby Street, Kingstown. Telephone us at (784) 451-2235-6. Email bgpsvg@vincysurf.com or cedsvg@vincysurf.com