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Contact:
Julita
Peter
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - Program Manager of the Small and Medium
Enterprise Development Program (SMED), Michael Taylor said the USAID-sponsored
programme based in Barbados has been making significant strides since its
inception three years ago.
The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Program was designed to address the
constraints faced by small and medium sized enterprises in the Eastern
Caribbean.
Several OECS companies have benefited from the services of the program in a
number of areas, some of which include marketing, computer and information
technology, financing and training.
Speaking at a two-day forum in St. Lucia organized by the OECS Export
Development Unit this week, Mr. Taylor said the program had interfaced with over
100 projects, resulting in some 85% success stories. He said employment,
productivity and levels of sales in these projects had increased.
“My question however, at this point, after three years is how ready are these 85
companies for taking a step hopefully in the 11 months into CSME. And not only
are they ready, but what is it that they will need to do in order to be
competitive and to take their place, to find their way at the other level, as we
move from the SME to a CSME, still operating within that program”, Mr. Taylor
remarked.
Mr. Taylor said SMED was hoping to use the success stories to assist those
companies that have not yet reached the set criteria. But as the program moves
from one strategy to another, he said there was need to set goals for the way
ahead.
He added that one of the challenges that continued to affect enterprises in the
OECS, was small market size: “We need to see that our borders are not just
Barbados or St. Lucia, Antigua or Grenada, and try to see how we could establish
some synergies, alliances with persons or businesses which may be similar or
doing one element of a particular product, in order to get that competitive base
for the region to take us to another level.”
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