Guyana is one of six countries on a steering committee to craft a Caribbean Association of Small and Medium Enterprises.
The committee was formed at a small business conference held in Barbados last week. Prior to the conference, the Guyana Small Business Association (GSBA) had reported that they would have proposed that a Caribbean/Caricom small business association be formed.
Lynette Holder, from the Professional Business Advisory Services Group, in Barbados told Stabroek Business on Monday by telephone that the regional leaders of small businesses were ready to make this very important move.
"We are very excited...we see it has a timely event," she said.The conference, hosted by the Barbados Small Business Association at the Sherbourne Conference Centre from September 9 to 10, saw 18 Caricom/associate members attending. Some of Caricom's associate members are Turks and Caicos Islands, Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
A Caricom small business association will facilitate networking within the region and will likely enhance the success of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).
"This proposal became the main achievement of the whole conference," reported Patrick Zephyr, president of the GBSA who signed the Memorandum of Understanding for the Caribbean Association, on behalf of Guyana.
Other members of the steering committee are from Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Bermuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia and the Committee chair, Barbados. Holder said the general feeling at the conference was that this time would be appropriate to form such an organisation with CSME now on stream.
Discussions on this action, she said, go back a decade and she would not give credit to any one territory for the idea. Grenada was unable to attend the Conference due to Hurricane Ivan.
The steering committee will meet in Barbados in November to select the executive body; to put in place the plan of action and to finalize the draft constitution.
The Barbados Small Business Association, which financed the trip for the presidents of regional small businesses to attend the conference, will also be financing members of the steering committee, for November's meeting. Officials from the Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP), the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) and Empretec Guyana Centre also attended the conference.