Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise Development in the Caribbean: Towards A New Frontier - | 72
in promoting business awareness and providing training and mentorship to entrepreneurs across the country. Deliberate strengthening of the SBDC as a full-fledged quadrant within the BELTRAIDE complex, alongside EXPORTBelize, BelizeINVEST and BTEC, will strengthen Belize’s progress to become a best practice jurisdiction for enabling MSME competitiveness and growth.
3.2.3 Jamaica MSME Policy and Strategy (2013) The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Policy, produced in May 2013 by the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce (MIIC) following extensive consultation and research, provides a good example of an attempt to develop a comprehensive legal and policy framework for MSME development. It is presented as “the intervention framework that offers coordinated, coherent and targeted support to the sector in an effort to expand its contribution”. Unlike the Belize Policy, it highlights the need to lead the process of internationalizing the sector by strengthening Jamaica’s bilateral, regional and international economic and trade relations and the promotion of local and foreign investments in certain areas. It combines a timeless policy statement and a timebound implementation strategy. Its goals are very specific and far-reaching: 1. A strong focus on this sector as a key part of Jamaica’s vision to go global and become a developed nation; 2. Increasing capacity building and business awareness around available support and resources for MSMEs (e.g. an online database, expanded technical assistance and mentorship); 3. Special focus on creative industries which are less explored but growing and full of potential (e.g. fashion, music, animation);
4. Inclusion of entrepreneurship education in all institutions and at all levels; and 5. Establishing standards for certification and accreditation. Like Belize’s BELTRAIDE, Jamaica’s MIIC is seeking to foster a deep-seated Culture of Entrepreneurship and Innovation across Jamaica as a platform for transforming the economy. The introduction of entrepreneurship in the curricula of all primary, secondary and tertiary institutions is a gamechanging strategy. Knowledge and skills transfers are contemplated in such subjects as Business Planning, Cash Flow Projections, Management, Bookkeeping, Marketing and Customer Service. The Strategy caters for the creation of an online directory of available technical assistance and training resources - including consulting firms, tertiary institutions and BSOs - on an MSME business news web portal, another vital construct for capacity building. A structured Mentorship Programme seeks to utilise entrepreneurs, senior executives and business professionals with proven track records in their fields, to volunteer as mentors, supported by facilities for online business counselling. The policy gives special focus to the creative industries (film, music, animation, fashion, etc.) which are seen as possessing strong linkages with various sectors of the economy and having the potential to create wealth for a wide range of MSMEs. Their export potential is also substantial, as acknowledged by respondents from the OECS Commission and Barbados. The Jamaica Policy also acknowledges the lack of supply of “adequate and serviceable credit” from financial institutions and the limited options available to small businesses. The strategies, similar to those distilled in Table 3.4 below, place emphasis on recognizing non-traditional collaterals such as inventory, accounts receivable and intellectual property.