Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BRIDGETOWN555
2009-09-14 20:33:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Bridgetown
Cable title:  

SSI SPEAKER ELECTRIFIES EASTERN CARIBBEAN SMALL

Tags:  OIIP ECON EFIN EINV XL 
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VZCZCXRO5320
PP RUEHGR
DE RUEHWN #0555/01 2572033
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 142033Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7756
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
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
-------

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

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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.

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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