THE CENTRE FOR ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT (CED)

Macro-economic and Sectoral Policy

Government’s broad policy objectives include:

• The promotion of balanced and sustained growth with the aim of reducing unemployment and poverty and improving standards of living;
• The acceleration of economic diversification through several initiatives, including promoting Small Enterprise development and facilitating investments in non-tourism services; and
• Improvements to the fiscal and regulatory framework designed to encourage more private sector activity.

The Private Sector objectives within the foregoing broader framework,  includes, inter alia,  the expansion and strengthening of the private sector in general, and the small and micro-enterprise (SME) sub-sector in particular, and are of critical importance to the attainment of the macro strategy. More specifically, it is argued that increasing opportunities for investment in sound, SMEs can serve to accelerate the process of economic diversification and impact positively on poverty alleviation.

The decision to establish a Centre for Enterprise Development (CED) is seen as an important step in the process of stimulating the expansion of the Private sector to allow it to take a pivotal role in the growth of the National Economy. CED will offer advice and recommendations to Government directed at fine-tuning existing policies and at the formulation of new policies designed to facilitate rapid expansion of the Private sector. CED will also provide a wide range of services to prospective investors and small and micro-business operators; coordinate interventions from several sources; and will generally seek to promote and maintain a climate that is conducive to the growth and development of the sub-sector.

Beneficiaries and Parties Involved

The direct beneficiaries of the initiatives are mainly potential, new, and established entrepreneurs. Youth and women, both groups in which there are already high levels of unemployment, will be well represented. Other parties involved include agencies directly involved in providing credit, training, or other services to small & micro ventures (e.g. the St. Vincent & the Grenadines Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the National Development Foundation). In a wider sense, the CED, in encouraging development of a climate that is more conducive to increased economic activity and economic diversification, will have a positive impact on unemployment and income distribution, help to alleviate poverty, and raise standards of living.

General Objectives of CED

• Increased economic growth and employment;
• Increased diversification of economic activity;
• Poverty reduction.
  
  

Specific Objectives:

The specific objectives of the CED are:

1. To increase the number of viable enterprises in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
2. To strengthen the institutional support base for private sector development in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
   
   

Activities

The activities and services performed by CED will encompass the following:

Technical Assistance and Advice

• Provision of adequate on-going technical assistance to investors towards the development of sound project proposals and business plans;
• Provision of business guidance and supervision with special attention to market penetration, product packaging, financial records, cash flow projections, production management and technology transfer;
• The development of business profiles on relevant types of enterprises that could be replicated locally; and Identification of niches for new business or product lines, as well as for strategic alliances with other businesses and/or interests.
  
  

Training and Education

• Provision of scheduled professional training seminars, workshops and attachments in order to increase/upgrade business skills and knowledge;
• Conduct regular educational activities geared for national, sectoral or community audiences, or at the plant level designed to increase awareness of entrepreneurship and opportunities within the business sector. Extension of business training and business educational programmes into the rural communities.
  
  

Networking and Referrals

• Provision of specialized referral services with respect to credit-sourcing, accounts management, duty concessions, income tax, plant expansion, etc; Continuous and extensive networking among Ministries, Departments, the Private Sector, NGOs, and community-based organizations and donor/lenders involved in Private sector development (eg. OAS, IFAD, CDB, EU, Japan, ROC).
  
  

Resource Mobilisation

• Design and development of funding proposals, to mobilize concessional domestic and external resource inflows to develop the private sector;
• The identification and sourcing of international, regional and local expertise to accelerate skills and technology transfers to the private sector.