It is wonderful to see the number of ‘vendor pop ups’ popping up on weekends. With the fear of COVID 19 receding Barbados has joined the global community by switching to back to normal mode despite the caution from the Chief Medical Officer Kenneth George.
We have talented individuals in Barbados who are producing quality products, Barbadians need to support this budding micro business sector, including the government. One suspects our small scale of production is a disadvantage finding significant export markets, however, Barbados’ high import volume creates the opportunity for import substitution. There is no reason why Barbadians at our stage of development should ignore the benefits of a thriving domestic market.
For many years we have given lip service to the micro business sector, preferring to allocate significant chunk of subsidies to the sexy and big ticket segments of the economy. Our planners must work harder to facilitate an outlet for creatives to express themselves along with the economic benefits that accrue. What is the point of annually allocating a significant part of the national budget to educate Barbadians to be satisfied with importing almost all commodities and services consumed?
What cannot be refuted is that we have talented Barbadians and a budding micro enterprise sector. The government agencies responsible must do better to lend support to ensure the sector can be sustained AND at the same time lead by example by purchasing from the sector. The unwieldy procurement policy of governments acts as a disadvantage by creating cash flow and procedural hurdles for small enterprises – is it an impossible problem to solve? We have the largest Cabinet by population size in the world paid by taxpayers to solve freaking problems.
Successful economies every where have a common characteristic – a thriving home market. Those who have ears let them ear.
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