— owners to be trained to bid for contracts

SMALL- business operators would be able to access training to help them bid for Government contracts with the help of the Small Business Bureau (SBB).The training will begin in the first quarter of 2017, as the Government strives to ensure that 20 per cent of all public contracts are awarded to small businesses.
This initiative aims to promote a healthier and more diverse business environment.
The training will focus on empowering individuals and facilitating small and micro-enterprises, as well as expand existing programmes, a release from the Government Information Agency (GINA) said.

SBB Finance Officer Simon Pollard, said the agency is working to ensure clients are well trained.

“One of the things we are planning, as well, is that this year we are going to train small-business owners on how to do bidding, so that they will be able to complete their bid documents and so on,” Pollard said.

He explained that there are some requirements for the training and noted that business-owners must be members of the bureau and must have an established business or a viable business idea.

Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin, had said that the initiative will see 20 per cent of public tenders being awarded to small businesses, a gesture welcomed by owners of such businesses, especially young entrepreneurs.

“Government is still the biggest spender in the economy, and therefore Government procurement is a big deal and we want to ensure that small businesses have access. Now it was written into the Small Business Act, however under the previous Government, it was not pursued and we have made it a priority to actually make that provision effective.”

The minister added that the Ministry of Business has done quite a bit of work in relation to the Business Act in 2016, to develop mechanisms by which the 20 per cent can be achieved.
He said that there is nothing in the Act that measures the level of procurement that goes out to small businesses and noted that a system must be in placed to distinguish between a regular business and a small business in every budget agency.
“This will give us an accurate assessment as to who is getting what, and it is a much bigger task than you might think, so we have done a lot of work and we want to be able to implement it this year,” Minister Gaskin said.
Minister Gaskin pointed out that developing small businesses and creating entrepreneurs will continue to remain a high priority of the SBB’s agenda.
Everyone should be allowed to contribute meaningfully to the country’s economy, he said.