BY SHARON AUSTIN | NOV 16, 2022
Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins, speaking at the media launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2022, at the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management, The University of the West Indies. (C. Pitt/BGIS)
The Ministry of Energy and Business is committed to working with its partners to develop “custom-built bespoke solutions” for different sectors in the economy, and the various life cycles of the entrepreneurship journey.
This assurance came from Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins, who stressed the importance of this work, as she pointed out that there was no “one size fits all approach”.
She made the comments on Monday at the media launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2022, at the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management, The University of the West Indies.
Senator Cummins shared with her audience that one of the areas she would like to work through was a refashioning of the way in which financing for entrepreneurs was approached.
She explained that a body of work had been done on the different types of support the various sectors needed, and what was required for manufacturing was not necessarily what agriculture wanted.
“We have an excellent team in the Ministry and they’ve done a considerable amount of work already to be able to get us to this stage…. But I want to be able to now mine even further. What are the opportunities for the orange economy and entrepreneurial development? …. What are going to be the financing and the support mechanisms that are specifically needed for the blue economy, for the green economy, for traditional sectors, for emerging sectors, for innovative sectors?
“There is not a one size fits all approach, and so…my Ministry is committed to being able to work with all of you to develop custom-built bespoke solutions for different sectors within the economy, different life cycles of the entrepreneurship journey, and those who are in the second wave of their own entrepreneurship journey,” she stated.
Senator Cummins said many of the foundation principles for entrepreneurship, in particular small business development, that might exist in large, advanced and developed countries around the world, might not have historically existed in Barbados.
Therefore, she stated, she was not persuaded that the starting point for business development in this country would be drawn entirely from an advanced economy that had an entirely different history and structure to the Caribbean.
“We need to begin to look at emerging economies and see where among the developing world, in particular in south-south collaboration, where that has taken place, how an equivalent platform can be built that then propels us into an advanced economy as it relates to entrepreneurship….
“In our global outreach or global partnerships, our ambition has to become an advanced economy for entrepreneurship, but our platform on which we build has to take into account the unique and peculiar circumstances of a developing economy…. If we start with the basic principles of an advanced economy, and we don’t have many of the basic components in place in country, then we’re setting up ourselves and the entrepreneurs that we serve for some disappointment,” she proffered.
The new Business Minister said she would like to see doctoral students at The University of the West Indies using their research, on an annual basis, to partner with various entities and tertiary-level institutions, to develop innovative products and services.
