The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has endorsed the announcement made by Finance Minister Winston Jordan in his 2015 budget presentation that government intends to fully implement the provision contained in the Small Business Act allocating 20 per cent of state contracts to the small business sector, though Chamber President Lance Hinds says he believes there should be conditions attached to that allocation.
Hinds told Stabroek Business that he believed the initiative was likely to create opportunity for small businesses to grow and that the worst thing that can happen is to simply allow so-called small businesses to “feed off” such a facility for an indeterminate period of time.
Hinds, who along with Chamber Vice President Vishnu Doerga spoke with Stabroek Business recently on a range of issues said he believed access to the facility for small businesses should be allowed “perhaps for between three and five years.
Dr Doerga also expressed the view that access to such a facility should be limited in order to make room for other small businesses to benefit. Both Hinds and Doerga told this newspaper that care needed to be taken to ensure that the concession to small businesses provided under the Act did not create a situation in which they remained small businesses forever.
The Chamber officials told Stabroek Business that the arrangement that allowed small businesses access to 20 per cent of state procurement should be ‘structured,’ insofar as they should be officially registered businesses and should be registered with the Small Business Bureau. Doerga said that the advent of the concession should coincide with full access to the procurement website.
