Can local micro, small businesses survive the covid-19 onslaught The overwhelming majority of our reportage since March this year has focused on the advent of the coronavirus and the ways in which it has impacted on business as a whole in Guyana. Our primary focus, however, has targeted the impact of the virus on the micro and small business sectors and particularly on their likely longer term survival.
Immediately prior to the onset of the virus earlier this year, the various sub-sectors in the small business sector had undergone a period of unprecedented growth, due primarily to the determination of emerging players to go forward. While the challenge of investment capital continued to be a considerable hindrance to growth, what was most noteworthy was the blossoming of the various types of skills in areas such as agro-processing and in the various creative industries. There had also been, over a relatively short period, a marked improvement in product presentation as manifested in significantly improved packaging and labeling while opportunities, albeit limited ones, for external exposure served to whet the appetites of local small businesses for the more lucrative overseas markets.