THE Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) is a developmental model which continues to have value beyond the time and circumstance of its foundation.
Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Lawrence Carrington, addressing the gathering at the Institute’s 25th Annual General Meeting and anniversary celebrations at the Pegasus Hotel on Monday, made this declaration and congratulated IPED  on its quarter of a century of success. “By intervening at the level of micro financing and small business development, IPED offers its clients the possibility of taking a pathway out of the surface of survival, and they can begin to charter a dynamic course to the fulfillment of realistically attainable goals,” he said.
In addition, he emphasized that the celebrations do not simply surround the times, but rather the quality of the initiatives and the record of its outcomes.
Carrington said, “The number of persons that have benefited from the work of IPED and the nature of its successes persuade us that the institute is one of value to the development of Guyana, not just towards businesses, but towards the general contribution to the development of Guyana as a nation.”
The Vice Chancellor also noted that the development of Guyana and any other developing country is a complex product of interactions, and pointed out that economic growth at the macro level is not all there is to development.
He highlighted that the country’s economic history is littered with skeletons of big investments that were touted as the salvation of the country at their inception.
These were presented as generators of employment and stimuli of economic growth, he added.
As to the impact of IPED’s role, he stated, “The kind of development embodied in IPED, focusing on small and micro entrepreneurs, is a bottom up approach that targets the transformation of the individual and focuses on the welling up of development traits rather than a trickle down of economic crumbs.”
In light of this, Carrington said the promotion of the growth of small businesses is a way out of poverty; and in order to appreciate the different approaches, the characteristics of poverty need to be understood.
“Fostering the development of small and micro enterprises is not simply a financial and economic act; it is a developmental act that goes beyond the dollars and cents, and changes the perception of what is possible,” he posited.
Professor Carrington also lauded IPED for its intervention in establishing the Entrepreneurial Development Centre (EDC) which offers courses in elements of accounting, marketing and other key areas of business skills.
Highlighting the benefits of such a programme on the society, he said, “The knowledge offered is important to the clients success and their ability to repay their loans; and the fact that IPED recognizes the clients to be worthy of training is of fundamental importance.”
He noted too that the recognition of other pertinent education as part of the investment, both by the lender and the borrower, is connected with the view that development is not a monetary transaction, but an evolutionary expansion of the link between the potential and the accomplishment, “between where we are and where we want to be”.
Celebrating its 25th year of service to the people of Guyana, The Institute of Small Enterprise Development Ltd. was incorporated on October 2, 1985, as a company limited by guarantee.
It is a non-profit and tax exempt organization formed to promote and to encourage the development and growth of industry through the provision of business guidance, technical assistance, non-traditional credit facilities to small entrepreneurs or to groups, and generally, to promote and encourage the development and growth of all other economic activities designed to improve the social and economic welfare of the people of Guyana.