Former president of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Dr Compton Bourne is calling for an increased number of small businesses in the composition of business enterprises across the region.
Bourne, last week, is reported as saying during a conversation with serving CDB President Dr Gene Leon that it is his wish that thirty years from now the region develops a more robust private sector characterised by “a middle sector that is vibrant and a small business sector that way,” rather than simply a few large conglomerates.
“I think that this is something that the CDB can help with,” Bourne said while suggesting that the Bank and the CARICOM Secretariat can come together in brokering an international intermediation on behalf of Caribbean countries. “Sometimes institutions like the CDB … are better situated to interpret the intelligence and constraints to international agencies,” Bourne reportedly said.
In some Caribbean territories, including Guyana, the growth of a robust micro- and small-business community has been stymied by limited state support as well as a less-than convivial relationship between micro and small businesses, on the one hand and the banking sector on the other.
Bourne’s comments, according to a Caribbean Business News report, came as commentators across the region continue to express the view that the private sector in the Caribbean has not done enough to help drive economic growth and sustainability and has left the burden of that pursuit up to regional governments.
