SSI SPEAKER ELECTRIFIES EASTERN CARIBBEAN SMALL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRIDGETOWN 000555 SIPDIS STATE PLEASE PASS TO OPIC - ALISON GERMAK, USTDA - NATHAN YOUNGE AND PATRICIA ARRIAGADA, EXIM - XIOMARA CREQUE-BROMBERT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP ECON EFIN EINV XL SUBJECT: SSI SPEAKER ELECTRIFIES EASTERN CARIBBEAN SMALL BUSINESS COMMUNITY -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (U) Strategic Speaker Chuck Mills made a series of presentations and met with government officials, local chambers of commerce and small business associations during his week-long trip to Barbados, Grenada and St. Lucia. His talk on small business development and entrepreneurship was well-received by sizeable audiences in each country, including many who were actively looking for ways to stimulate and support this large but underappreciated component of the economy. Small business owners cited limited access to capital, technical training and opportunities to expand outside of their small domestic consumer base as key impediments to sustainability and growth. Audiences in all countries voiced strong interest in learning more about USG programs to support SME development, including through the Small Business Administration, OPIC, EXIM, and USTDA. End Summary -------------- Barbados -------------- ¶2. (U) In Barbados, Mills met with embassy staff, senior staff of the Barbados Manufacturers Association, and Invest Barbados, and participated in both print and television interviews. Mills noted that in Barbados many of the newer small business entrepreneurs were women and that the leadership of the Barbados Manufacturing Association reflects this, as 90 percent of the leadership is female. The Executive Director, Bobbi McKay, confirmed that most new enterprises in Barbados are female-owned and female entrepreneurs are doing very well in Barbados. She speculated that this is partially because young women are now the majority of college students: 68 percent of the students at the local University of the West Indies and the community college are female, and the majority of students studying abroad (who are often the most capable and ambitious students) are female. ¶3. (U) During Mills' meetings, lack of access to capital emerged as one of the consistent concerns raised by participants. Most banks in Barbados do not consider newer, smaller companies to be good credit risks and most bank financing goes to the larger, established companies. The government and the BMA said they were committed to helping SMEs succeed and have started an incubator program, but lamented that they only have slots available for 20 companies. The BMA has about 200 members out of the 300 estimated manufacturing concerns on the island, which are mostly niche food and beverage makers primarily serving the local market. Although the BMA, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the government are all encouraging local manufacturers to export, they noted that most manufacturers are simply not ready. ¶4. (U) BDIC, the Small Business Association and Invest Barbados jointly sponsored the evening event, including a reception for the participants. The evening lecture was standing room only, with more than 60 people attending. The Q and A session was lively, with many follow-on questions for Mills. The consensus of the audience, (60 percent female) most of whom were small business owners, was that neither the government nor the business development corporations were particularly effective at meeting the needs of small businesses. Many were unaware that BDIC even has an incubator program. Participants noted that obtaining capital is very difficult for a new-to-market firm as the big companies receive the bulk of bank financing. -------------- Grenada -------------- ¶5. (U) In Grenada, Mills met with the Grenada Chamber of Commerce, did an early morning TV interview and gave his presentation to an audience of about 40 people. The chamber was represented by VP Justin King and Director Hazel-Ann Hutchinson, both of whom appreciated the message about small business development and hoped it would help to improve local business conditions, which they claimed were plagued by lack of access to capital, general mistrust, and a lack of creativity in choosing business lines. Mills classified access to training as the most pressing need, placing it ahead of capital as a scarce resource for a small business. King and Hutchinson also described the difficulty in running BRIDGETOWN 00000555 002 OF 002 a Chamber as it was difficult to collect fees in order to expand the number of services offered. Mills, who has experience running a local Chamber of Commerce in Virginia, made several recommendations on how to connect with local lawyers and accountants to offer a broader range of services and allow those firms to slowly build a client base of small but growing businesses. -------------- Saint Lucia -------------- ¶6. (U) In St. Lucia, Mills met with the Small Enterprise Development Unit (SEDU) of the Ministry of Commerce, the Saint Lucia Industrial and Small Business Association (SLISBA),and the MBA Program at Monroe College, and delivered a speech sponsored by the latter two institutions in conjunction with the American Chamber of Commerce. Julia Mittile, Director of SEDU, stated that the definition of a small business in St. Lucia is one with under 1 million Eastern Caribbean dollars (approximately US$370,000) in annual sales, under 50 employees and under 500,000 EC dollars (US$185,000) in assets. By this measure, over 80 percent of companies fit into this category. Mittile stated that the SEDU was attempting to streamline the process of starting a business and had reduced the cost to 900 EC dollars (US$ 340) and two weeks processing time for registration. ¶7. (U) The meeting with SLISBA was particularly valuable, as it included mostly small business owners who were passionate about increasing their access to capital, training, and technical assistance. President Flavia Cherry was interested in assistance on starting a business incubator, ways to attract a venture capital fund, and developing connections to the U.S. Small Business Administration. The roundtable with the MBA students from Monroe College, with twenty students in attendance, was a more informal program that led to greater interaction between the speaker and the students. The final event garnered attendance of 40 small business owners, government officials, and academics. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶8. (U) Mills proved to be an engaging speaker who connected well with his audience. In St. Lucia, the main message from the audience was that, while the speaking engagements are a great start, they would like to see greater follow up in terms of real deliverables such as a business workshop describing funding opportunities through Ex-IM Bank, USTDA and OPIC. Many of the participants did not attend the earlier Embassy-sponsored workshops in either Barbados or St. Lucia, and to reach a broader audience, post is planning to conduct additional workshops in the region, following those conducted in Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Kitts in 2008. There is a strong desire within the region to learn more about how incubators function in the U.S., with the hope of transferring that knowledge to establish one in the OECS. End comment. HARDT