There are opportunities for the new political administration to do much more than its predecessor for the growth and development of the small business sector, according to local businessman Robert Badal.
Badal, who is on record as charging that favoritism and nepotism were hallmarks of facilitating business breaks for friends and associates under the recently removed PPP/C administration, told Stabroek Business in an interview last week that government could provide commercial banks with incentives for lending to small business enterprises particularly in circumstances where those enterprises might meaningfully contribute to export earnings.
Despite the advent in 2013 of the Norway-funded US$5 million Medium and Small Enterprise Development Project (MSED) under which small businesses meeting specific low-carbon criteria can access state grants and commercial banks’ loans at preferential rates of interest, Badal believes that more can be done officially to support the small business sector and private investment as a whole. The businessman told this newspaper that he believes opportunities currently exist for providing fiscal incentives for investment in value-added areas in the rice sector and there may be considerable merit in government exploring these opportunities at the earliest possible time. Noting that the production of mostly “semi-milled cargo white rice makes the sector low in value-added,” Badal said incentives that move the rice industry in a stronger value-added direction were likely to reduce the pressures associated with finding markets for rice in an internationally competitive sector.
He said the quality of governance under the new political administration was likely to depend to a considerable extent on the quality of the local private sector organizations. He said that apart from competent ministers and an independent public service it will now be necessary to have a private sector that is prepared to be far more vocal than it was under the previous political administration in its criticism of corruption, cronyism and poor decision-making.
“Essentially, they will need to be far more forceful in dealing with negative developments that are not in the interest of the private sector,” Badal told Stabroek Business. “Equally importantly, we are going to have to see effective consultations in an environment where private sector inputs must help shape public policy,” he added.
