CABINET, on Tuesday endorsed and approved the establishment of Demerara Enterprise Network (DEN) as the successor agency to Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP).

The latter wraps up by year-end, after seven years in the mining town of Region Ten (Upper Demerara/Berbice) DEN is expected to take over its role on a modified scale from January 2010, Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr Roger Luncheon confirmed Thursday.

Speaking at his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing in Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown, he noted that LEAP, which addresses business creation and development, would conclude next month.

The decision to create a successor entity would, indeed, see LEAP like activities, those carried out by LEAP, continued, Luncheon said.

“Broad parameters of the remit of the to be created entity were identified and they included the continued focus exclusively on Region Ten, the continued promotion of business creation and business development in that Administrative Region, as well as the continuation of the micro-credit loan scheme carried out under a component of LEAP,” he reiterated.

Luncheon said a statutory body will be appointed and empowered to give effect to Cabinet’s decisions.

Alluding to questions about its operations, he explained that LEAP will, of course, have to be reactive from January after the scheme closes its doors and a seamless transition is anticipated, before a smaller outfit, in terms of its administration, is inaugurated with the same objectives.