Barbados committed to the development of e-commerce

The Barbados government recognises the need to facilitate businesses which depend on, or see potential in e-commerce capability, according to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Senator Maxine McClean, as she delivered the feature address at the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme’s graduation.

She further noted that government was therefore working to put payment capacity mechanisms in place that will ensure that entrepreneurs can take advantage of international business opportunities.

According to McClean, there had been many challenges in the age of the internet and e-commerce, and entrepreneurs may decide to put their products on the World Wide Web. She said that “when it comes to the question of how to settle payments, you have to scratch your head and that is not something that is inspiring or beneficial to entrepreneurs”.

She also pointed out that government would honour its commitment to the advancement of entrepreneurship by ensuring access to government contracts by small businesses, by committing approximately 40 percent of its procurement to that sector.

Minister McClean noted that in addition to government’s contribution to the development of entrepreneurship, for example, through education, technical support and finance, entrepreneurs needed to focus on the delivery of quality products and services.

She also appealed to the families of small business persons and the wider community to play their part in building and sustaining an entrepreneurial culture.

“I call on families to ensure that they are able to make a commitment as part of a family and as part of a community to support your entrepreneurial effort. If you do this, you can ensure, of course, that we have a strong society translated into a strong community and certainly a strong entrepreneurial culture,” McClean urged.

Another recommendation made by the Minister was the exploration of the possibility of entrepreneurs joining forces to establish stronger businesses. “These may come in the form of common sources of input, sharing of production facilities, joint distribution etc.

“The entrepreneur is by nature independent, but in a small country where the market is relatively small on the one hand and the international market is very large, creating strategies where small entities come together to form strategic alliances or even merge, is one way of surviving and indeed competing successfully,” she said.

McClean assured the graduating entrepreneurs that government was ready to support their efforts and was examining the existing resources to ensure that they had the capacity to deliver in a manner that reflected “the needs of the entrepreneur who has to be assisted with alacrity in order to capitalise on opportunities as they arise”.

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