As is customarily the case with commemorative events that have a bearing on the consolidation of a sound, national, entrepreneurial culture, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2021, which is being observed from Monday, November 8 to Sunday November 14, has not, up to this time, been attended by a programme of events, or initiative, planned by either government or the private sector. Cynics may say that given the obvious preoccupation with matters to do with oil and gas at this time, the government has little if any interest in global entrepreneurship and its significance. Rather, it is our view that the absence to date of a programme to mark Global Entrepreneurship Week, whether a government stand-alone or a joint initiative with the private sector, is a function of official indifference at the level of the ministry/agency that ought correctly to be tracking events of this kind and bringing them to public attention.
Part of the purpose of GEW is to “empower nascent entrepreneurs and those who face systemic barriers to starting and scaling their own company.” We can stop there and make an open-and-shut case for GEW as an area of particular interest to Guyana; but we go further. In a year when the ravages of COVID-19 have severely retarded the growth and development of the small business sector, one might have thought that GEW would provide an ideal opportunity for across-the-country, state-sponsored initiatives designed to reignite some of the impetus which emerging entrepreneurs, particularly, would have lost to the pandemic. Here again, we have chalked up another missed opportunity.
Truth be told, the government on the whole, has never really been particularly adept at factoring these landmark development-related commemorative events into its calendar of activities. Contextually, it would not be at all surprising if the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, which, presumably, is the lead agency in the matter of the commemoration of GEW, had no plans whatsoever. That might well have been because the ministry was simply not aware of GEW.
There is a patent nexus behind what we are told is the focus of GEW, and some of the very weaknesses of the small business sector in Guyana. Yet, in circumstances where the public treasury and a modicum of organizational skill might have, together, realized a perfectly sound GEW programme, nothing is being done.
With oil and gas as added strings to the bow of the Guyana economy, the government has been focusing on the role of the private sector insofar as it relates to attracting external investors and positioning local businesses to play a more meaningful role in the country’s economy through the Local Content vehicle. Unfortunately, up until now, the initiatives that could conceivably include significantly strengthening the capacity of the Small Business Bureau to both meaningfully finance the development of small and micro businesses and provide the owners with the requisite training on how to manage their respective enterprises, has not been forthcoming. This is a pity, since one need only follow the growth of micro and small businesses in Guyana to discover the growing appetite for entrepreneurship among the unemployed. Simultaneously, there is also evidence that greater numbers of people are opting for cutting ties with paid employment.
What GEW provides is an opportunity for government to:
1. Mandate state agencies to help plan and execute market-oriented events such as Farmers’ Markets that would bring buyers and sellers together;
2. invest in training that can support the enhancement of resources for cost-effective manufacture of products produced by micro and small enterprises;
3. Create How-To-Do-Business hubs across the country that can provide targeted training for micro and small business owners in the essentials of creating and operating a business, based on limited curricula that meet their particular needs;
4. Reintroduce a re-conceptualized GuyExpo-type public display and marketing events in key com-munities;
5. Aggressively advocate for enhanced local market access for locally produced goods that adhere to product quality and package and labelling standards;
6. Lobby regional business enterprises to establish stronger relationships with the country’s agriculture and agro-processing sectors.
Had we been on the ball, Global Entrepreneur-ship Week might well have provided opportunities to help reset the national gauge as far as seeking to recover from at least some of the business losses arising out of COVID-19.
Of course, the official delinquency does not mean, however, that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce cannot undertake some limited initiative, even if it falls outside the time frame of GEW.
