February 1st, 2010.

Labour Minister Rennie Dumas says the Government hopes to double the credit available to the small business community.

As he once again appealed for private sector lending to small business on Saturday, Dumas said he hoped to make the leap through the State’s ’Policy Package for Stepping up Credit to SMEs’, which was announced in the National Budget presentation for 2009/2010.

’Gone are the days when the business limelight was reserved almost entirely for the captains in the corporate sector, while small businesses remained in the shadows,’ Dumas said while addressing the Awards Ceremony to Commemorate Small Business Month at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad in Port of Spain.

January was small business month.

Micro and small enterprises create about 75 per cent of private sector employment locally, Dumas said, and that field has the potential to be a substantial contributor to balanced local and regional growth.

’We will need to create the environment to help move the majority of our small businesses from the informal sector into the formal sector,’ the Minister said, later adding: ’I hope we can double the credit flow to this sector within the next year.

I urge our banks and financial institutions to come forward and support the SMEs, especially through risk and venture capital support.’

Chief executive of bpTT Robert Riley, who also delivered an address, said citizens should support small businesses, as this sector fed an entrepreneurial spirit and the passion for innovation while acting as a remedy for social ills like poverty.

Riley spoke about bpTT’s own micro-business support entity, the Mayaro Initiative for Private Enterprise Development (MIPED).

Awards given on Saturday were:

Most Outstanding Small Business-
Edward Skinner, Summit Cosmetics.

Most Outstanding Micro Business-
Sharon Wilson, Earthscents.

Most Innovative Business-
Kerry Peters, Yearbooks Caribe Co Ltd and The Student Press.
Social Entrepreneur-Winston Graham, Winston Graham Manufacturing Co.

Best Business Plan-’Child Care Plan’ from Kim Lewis, Ordellia Darlington, Nicole Lutchman, Larry Khan and Kevin Gooptar, College of Science of Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTATT).

Most Outstanding Essay-Davie Christo, Naparima Girls High School.


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